A Day in Houston

The day started off with Justin and I sitting down for breakfast, reading my daily devotional, and prayer time together. It is amazing how many times and places God is speaking to us right now. The last 8 words of the devotional said exactly what we needed to hear; “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

When we got to the Texas Children’s Fetal Center, we started with an anatomy ultrasound to take a look at Emma and the fluid in her belly, lungs, and face. I didn’t see much of a change since Monday, as I have gotten pretty good at reading ultrasounds at this point. It is easy to see how much fluid is in her belly right now, and the ultrasound technician said it was about 7 ounces. When you look at the ultrasound picture below of Emma's profile, her head is on the right, and all of the black space in her belly is the extra fluid. Justin and I laughed that all of the girls in our family have big bellies right now! Me, our 10-month old daughter Laney, and now little Emma. After that, we went straight to have the Fetal MRI done. Before going in, the nurse asked me what type of music I would like to listen to, and I requested Christian. I had a nice 30 minutes of praise and prayer time. For any of you that have had an MRI done, you know it is not a fun place to be if you suffer from anxiety or claustrophobia. As the machine moved me into the large tube, my prayer time started off by asking God to control my anxiety and not give me a panic attack. He answers even the smallest of prayers! After 30 minutes I was finally done and could move and breathe again. We had a short lunch break then we had a consultation with 2 doctors to go over the results of the ultrasound and the Fetal MRI. The doctors did another short ultrasound to look at Emma, and during that they shared with me that they are friends with my doctor in Austin, who had called them to make sure they took good care of me. I felt like God placed Emma and I in good hands. When we sat down to have the consultation, we didn’t quite get the answers we were hoping for, but we did get a little more hope. Unfortunately, the Fetal MRI didn’t show anything that we didn’t already know, so there are still a lot of unknown things about Emma’s case of hydrops. The doctor suggested that we stay the night and have a Fetal Echocardiogram done on Friday morning. After he called my doctor, he was reassured that the Fetal Echocardiogram I had in Austin was accurate, and all of the doctors involved were confident with the results, meaning there is absolutely nothing wrong with Emma’s heart right now. Now that we have ruled that out, our next option would be to have a shunt (just like a chest tube) put in Emma’s side to drain the fluid out. There are risks to this procedure, such as rupturing my membranes which could send me into early labor, but right now Justin and I feel that the benefits far out-weigh the risks. The doctor seemed very positive that the shunt would help out Emma’s hydrops, and even said by having this done her chance of surviving would jump up to 70%. Praise God! I have another appointment with my doctor on Monday here in Austin to check on Emma and discuss when we will have this done. There have been many cases of hydrops in the past where the fluid just disappears without any explanation, so it is never too late for a miracle!

Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, and encouraging messages. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to support us, and even all of the strangers who have read this blog and committed to pray. We know God has Emma in His hands, and He is so much bigger than any problems that come our way. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and keep praying!