Today was our first heart scan , and visit to the Evelina at st Thomas hospital. When we got there we had to fill out some paper work and a consent form to let people use our scan for training. Billy was feeling really ill today but still made himself come.(he suffered from panic attacks). A lady came and got us and took us in for the scan she had a little chat and look at my notes, then I lay on the bed ready for the scan. The scan started I can see that my baby boy has got big as everything looks so large lol . The lady informed us she would be doing the scan then the consultant would come and have a look so that they both agree on what they see. This was ok she took lots of pictures then the consultant came in and they went through the pictures, he had a little scan of his own. By this time my tummy was sore and I had pains in my back. After they had finished they said they would take us into the room to explain things. So that’s what we did. The consultant asked what did we know so I briefly told him (this was dr miller), about the four chambers and the whole, so on. He said well you do have a good understanding. He then said one thing has changed . This is when our hearts start to go one hundred to a dozen . What if its bad news? But he explained that the small pipe going from the heart to the lungs had closed. So that meant no blood was travelling that way to the lungs. But he also said while baby is inside, there is a connector going from the other tube sending all the blood the lungs need. But when baby is born that connecter closes so baby wont have the blood supply to the lungs. So as soon as he is born he will need a drip which will give him medication to keep the connector open till they do the next step. Which could be either go in through his thigh, and re pierce the hole which has closed and insert a balloon to keep it open. This is not an operation just a procedure. Or they will have to operate and they will make there own connector. So he can come off the medication. This is a shunt. But they cannot decide which one they will do till baby is here and do scans on him. As the whole in the heart can cause some complications. We felt a bit more happy now it had been explained what will happen as he is born, before it was all maybe’s. after the consultant spoke he left us with a lady that worked in the evelina. She asked did we have any questions? Yes we had a few , like will there be something wrong with his lungs as the blood flow is messing around. She reassured us that there wont be. She then gave us some information letters. I have loads of these now . I could write a book. We then asked how do we go about arranging a visit around the evelina hospital. She said she could do it now if we wanted. We was really happy to do this. She took us to see were the special care babies are. Its very emotional in there. Then she walked us around a bit showed us to the family rooms and the breast feeding room. Then we said are good byes, (for now).
Today we ended up getting more than we bargained for we was shown around the Evelina hospital and was showed PICU , nothing ca prepare you for that , and its even worse when your baby is there recovering.
I was happy there was finally a plan in action for when my baby was born , That's the main thing you want it stability and for you to know what is going to happen. This was our fist meet with Dr Miller he is still Dylan's specialist today.
The pictures are of inside the Evelinas children's hospital .
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