Monday, February 6, 2012

12/5 Echocardiogram Update

Today was not very successful in the medical sense.  Noelle was curled up with everything in front of her heart and refused to budge except for a small wave of her hand once in a while.  Of course she was moving plenty about an hour afterwards!!  So, we have to go back next Tuesday for another echocardiogram.  They were able to see a few things, and what they saw seemed to be "normal" but they said to take that with a grain of salt since none of their pictures were clear.  Still, it was encouraging to hear that nothing is glaringly wrong as of yet.  There is still fluid around her heart which they want to monitor closely, but sometimes babies are born with this and as long as it doesn't increase or develop in other areas, they tend to leave it alone and the babies are usually fine.  After the echocardiogram, we then met with a neonatologist who gave us a tour of the NICU at Forsyth and sat down and talked with us at length about possible outcomes and paths to take with our future care.  The information was scary and overwhelming in a lot of ways as there is still a long road ahead if Noelle is born at such a small size, even without heart complications; but it was also encouraging to see the level of care which they extend, and the communication between our doctors this past week (after switching all our care over to Wake Forest...long story) has been incredible.  The neonatologist already knew Noelle's name!!  Ultimately, we know that God has sustained us all this far, and Noelle still rests in His hands whether she is in the womb or in the NICU, and He alone will determine her outcome.  In the meantime, we have to discuss and start making decisions about how soon we will enter the hospital and begin constant monitoring of her heart and blood flow along with some other things.  We're hoping to put it off for at least a couple more weeks and let Noelle grow and be able to make some plans for that time period, but for now we'll just keep going one day at a time and see how things progress.  We'll continue to keep you posted as we find each new thing out--it's an amazing journey for certain!!  Thanks again for praying...I know we say that every time, but you have no idea how that encourages our hearts.  We know that God's plan is already determined, but it still is an incredible encouragement to know that others are bringing Noelle, by name, before His throne.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Tom and Jill

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