During the ultrasound the tech was fairly quiet. Then the tech left, and came back in with few drs. They talked about baby 'a' looking very squished, and that he didn't have very much amniotic fluid, and something about baby b's heart. After over an hour (2? I don't know) I was ushered into a room with a whiteboard, and a table and chairs. The Dr. Came in and told me that our twins had something called ttts, he explained what it was and that our babies would likely die. We had one of 4 choices.
1. Have an abortion and try again. (that's what he said...)
2. Try a partial abortion - kill baby 'a' in hopes of saving baby 'b' (baby b (Ryan) at this point had an enlarged heart and didn't look great because he was getting way too much of everything. Baby a (Ian) looked pretty good, except that he was small, and had dangerously low amniotic fluid.)
3. Don't do anything and see how the boys do (They would likely die, or be born very early. If we didn't do anything, they expected do a c-section soon...I was 20 weeks. We would likely loose one or both after birth)
4. Fly to Toronto for a risky surgery.
I was at this point trying my hardest not to cry (I don't normally cry in public.) I quickly said 'Toronto, I'll go to Toronto!' Then the Dr. left and said he would send the social worker in to explain more to me.
As I was sitting in the room alone waiting for the social worker, I was thinking about so many things... 'Matthew would have to stay home with the kids and I would go alone. I really didn't want to go alone, but I wasn't sure how we were going to afford one plane ticket to Toronto, two would be too expensive for us. When I would be leaving? How long I would be gone? How much it would cost?
My babies will likely die... I really hope this surgery works, I really don't want to loose my babies! ❤'
By then I was crying. The social worker came in with a box of tissues (She was incredibly sweet!) She sat down and then she started tearing up. She explained that Alberta health paid for 2 tickets to Toronto for me and another person for support, as well as a taxi to and from the hospital. I would have to pay for accommodations, if we needed them (the support person likely wouldn't be allowed to stay in the hospital). I would be gone 3-4 days.
Whew! I wouldn't have to be alone! And the flights are paid for, that sure took a load off my shoulders!
The social worker then brought me back to the waiting room, then she left to check which flights were available asap. I texted my sister, who was babysitting my kids to let her know I'd be late. I also called my hubby. He said he would come to the hospital asap.
The social worker came back and gave me a few options for flights. I picked the latest one - the red eye, arriving in Toronto the next morning. This way I would have a little more time to find babysitters for our other 3 kids. At least it would save us on one nights accommodations :-) I was then ushered to a clinic in the hospital for the heart echo's on the twins. During the heart echo's Matthew texted me and said he was going to move our van from where I had parked it (of course I had parked in the 2 hr (or was it 4 hr?) street parking as I has assumed I would be back in time. We didn't even get a ticket!... But the parking patrol guy was a few cars back... Lol Matthew quickly moved the van just in time! (For the many ultrasounds I had later, I only made that parking mistake one more time and then I decided to not risk it, so I just paid for parking).
Matthew then found the clinic I was in for the heart echos and the nurses let him in the room. The tech was great! He let me text and didn't mind that Matthew came in partway through the echos. He also didn't mind that we talked while he was doing the echo. :-) The Dr was great as well. She said she had worked with the Dr in Toronto that did the ttts surgeries and assured us he was one of the best :-) After the echo we went back to meet the social worker who had our flight info and some info on the hospital we were going to in Toronto. Then we went home. It was 4pm. We arranged babysitting for our 3 kids, packed our bags, I wrote a quick blog post and then we were off to the airport.
The flight to Toronto was the most uncomfortable flight I've had, I slept about an hour. Once in Toronto we found a cab and went straight to the hospital. (Whew! That was one crazy cab driver...or maybe they all drive that way? That was my first time in a cab.)
We spent the entire day in a room at the hospital having an ultrasound. I hadn't eaten since midnight because they were possibly going to do the surgery that day. The Dr's decided at 3pm to wait till the next day to do the surgery. We were directed to a social worker who was able to get us one complimentary night at a hotel, then we found a place to eat.
I'll do another post next week - the day the did the laser ablation sugery. :-)
Pete is Ryan, the recipient. He was the bigger twin that had 70% - 80% of the placenta and he was receiving blood etc. from Ian through the connecting blood vessels in the placenta. Ryan had way more amniotic fluid than he should have, and an enlarged heart.
Repete is Ian, the donor. He was smaller and had very little amniotic fluid, but otherwise looked healthy.
Before the surgery the main concern was for Ryan since he was in the most danger. After the surgery the main concern was for Ian since he has such a small portion of the placenta. The portion that Ian did have was 'strange' and the dr's were surprised it supplied him enough nutrients to last 34 weeks.
The pictures below are not of the twins but they show how the twins looked.
Ian and Ryan are identical since they shared one placenta, but they did have a thin separating membrane.
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