Our story began
on March 24th, 2002. In the middle of the night, I was having
a backache and experiencing mild discomfort in my abdomen
area. We had no reason to think that I was experiencing anything
other than the normal aches and pains associated with being
pregnant. To be safe, we called the doctor the next day. Thank
God we did.
Although the doctors could not
immediately determine why, they quickly realized that I was
having frequent, but mild contractions. We were only in the
middle of the 22nd week of pregnancy, expecting identical
twin girls. The plan was to immediately stabilize me and the
contractions, prevent me from going into pre-term labor, and
then determine the cause of the early contractions.
That evening, we met with a doctor
who explained that the cause of the early contractions was
due to a medical syndrome called twin-to-twin transfusion
syndrome. In the simplest of terms, the blood flow to the
babies was not proportional. McKenzie was receiving more blood
than she needed and Faith was receiving less. Both situations
were putting overdue stress on the babies-too much blood caused
stress on the heart of McKenzie, and the lack of blood to
Faith was causing her to be malnourished and to develop at
a much slower rate than McKenzie. All the information that
was given to us by the doctor seemed so overwhelming, and
since TTTS is quite rare, the doctors were not exactly positive
in what treatment would be the best for the girls and me.
That is when we decided to get more information from the TTTS
Foundation.
My husband quickly placed a call
to the TTTS Foundation for guidance and education. We were
so comforted in knowing that the person on the phone knew
EXACTLY what to say to us because she had been there before
some years earlier with her sons. We were overnighted a package
of information regarding TTTS and felt better about our chances
of delivering two healthy babies.
The next day, the doctors told
us of all of our options. First, we could abort the pregnancy
(not even an option for us). Second, we could have numerous
amniocentesis done, in which they would drain fluid off of
my belly in order to prolong the pregnancy. Finally, they
mentioned a laser surgery that would manipulate the flow of
blood to the babies. We were informed that the laser surgery
was very delicate, and there were only a handful of doctors
within the U.S. that perform the surgery. This option appealed
to us the most, and we were mentally ready to make the trip
to wherever we needed to go in order to save our girls. Unfortunately,
my body was in no physical condition to be flown across the
U.S. for the surgery. I was having too many contractions and
the doctors were very concerned that if I were to fly, I would
be at risk for pre-term labor.
So, my only option at that point
became the amniocentesis procedure. For the next few weeks,
I had numerous needles in my belly draining off the excess
fluid surrounding McKenzie. The procedure seemed to be working
because I had made it to the 24th week of pregnancy, and the
contractions seemed to have finally disappeared.
Unfortunately, things took a
turn for the worse. On Friday, April 12th, we found out via
ultrasound that Faith had passed away in the womb due to anemia
and dehydration. We were devastated and felt like the wind
had been taken out of our sails. We were so scared for McKenzie,
who was still clinging to life within my womb.
On April 14th, 2002, two days
after finding out that we had lost Faith Emilie, McKenzie
Faith Elizabeth came into the world weighing in at 1pd 5oz.
She was immediately rushed into the NICU, where she would
spend the next 110 days growing and recovering.
McKenzie was one of the smallest
babies the doctors had ever dealt with in the NICU. At her
lowest weight, she went down to 11 oz. She fought and struggled
to survive minute by minute, hour by hour. Since she was born
so early, her lungs were the main issue of concern for the
first months of her life. She was put on a ventilator for
a month, C-PAP for another month and then eventually required
supplemental oxygen. She had a grade II brain bleed, BPD,
Retinopathy of Prematurity, battled numerous infections and
had to have 3 blood transfusions. We rode the preemie roller
coaster day in and day out, visiting every chance that we
got.
The day FINALLY arrived when
we got to take little McKenzie home with us. McKenzie came
home weighing a little over 6 pounds and requiring supplemental
oxygen. We were a little intimidated by the oxygen machine,
but it quickly became part of our furniture! Today, McKenzie
is a healthy 18 month old who is now learning to walk on her
own. We count our blessing everyday that the doctors, nurses,
our family, friends and the TTTS Foundation were there for
us in our time of need. McKenzie wouldn’t be here without
them.
|
