We started our day with an appointment with a cardiologist. Sarah had a bad night sleeping so she got a late start and didn’t get a good meal before the appointment. Navigating to each new doctor challenged my driving and scheduling skills. To summarize, we were running late and tired.
We ran through the usual routine with the cardiologist: paperwork, wait, go into the exam room, wait, prep for the ultrasound, wait, watch the ultrasound exam, wait, cleanup, wait, move to another room, wait.
The cardiologist had bad news – the fluid buildup in Julie’s chest had increased since we first started monitoring it. We weren’t winning against time after all. Perhaps worst of all, the cardiologist was very worried about Sarah. She was tired and pale.
We might be able to wait much longer. The cardiologist wasn’t in the position to make the call, so she had us go to the specialist again with a warning…
BABY WARNING! Our cardiologist has issued a Baby Warning effective at noon today and extending until late tomorrow afternoon. A Baby Warning does not mean that the birth is imminent, but that conditions exist which are favorable for a C-section birth. Doppler radar (or sonogram) indicated that fluid in the chest has increased since 2-weeks ago. This combined with steady abdominal fluid; severe discomfort of the mother accompanied by continual nausea increases the likelihood of a pre-mature birth.
Watch this space for more info.
Now back to normal email…
The doctor might have to initiate birth or perform a C-section because of these new problems. We should prepare to go to the hospital that evening.
Of course, we didn’t know which hospital or who our new OB-GYN was. The specialist hadn’t arranged these changes yet. So, we were totally unprepared for this.
Still, I managed to keep my sense of humor throughout the process and formatted the update to keep the situation light hearted.
On the way home from the cardiologist, Sarah became really hungry, so stopped by a Whataburger for burger, onion rings and a very large strawberry shake. We stopped by our apartment on the way to the specialist which gave me just enough time to send out this update.