First off, we would like to thank you all for your continued love, prayers and support through this trying time. Since our last email update we have switched care from Orange County Womens Medical Group, to St. Josephs Hospital in orange, and our new OBGYN is Dr. Anzaldo, a high risk pregnancy specialist. We have met with him twice already and he has definitely made us feel more at ease with his confidence and knowledge of this type of condition.
We have also met with Dr. Rebolledo, a pediatric cardiologist and the doctor who will be monitoring Douglas' heart after birth, and surgery. He did an ultrasound and took a good look at Doug’s heart and made sure there were no other concerns in that area. We are very confident in him and his team and enjoyed meeting with them as well.
Today was a great day. Brad and I got to meet the doctor who will be performing surgery on our little man! His name is Dr. Vihn Lam, a pediatric surgeon who not only went to USC but then went to Harvard Medical in Boston (So you can imagine how excited Brad is). I did some research on him before our meeting and saw that Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia's are his specialty and that made us feel great going into the meeting. I was a little nervous and anxious for this meeting; wondering if we would like him, or if we would need to find another doctor to perform this surgery. Putting your baby’s life in someone else's hands will make any mother feel uneasy. But Brad assured me we would be just fine, as we were. Once we were called in, we were taken to an adorable patient’s room that was painted like the ocean, with Fish, Turtles, Sea Horses and Sharks. Then we got to meet Dr. Lam, who Brad say's reminds him of Mr. Chow from 'The Hangover'.
Dr. Lam was extremely excited to meet us, he said that Diaphragmatic Hernias are his passion and have been since medical school. He understood how anxious and scared we must have been, and said we are in the best of hands. He has been doing these surgeries for 20 years now and has never lost a patient! He in fact did this surgery on a patient yesterday and she did great. We talked for close to a half an hour about what we can expect, and he covered any and all questions we had before we even had a chance to ask them. Towards the end of our meeting he recommended we tour the NICU at CHOC and even called over there for us to ask the parents of the baby who was in surgery yesterday if we could see her.
Once we checked in at the CHOC lobby where they gave our badges and sent us up to the 2nd floor, the head nurse Debbie met us at the elevators and gave us a tour. She showed us all the little rooms, the incubators or "baby limousine" as she called them. Then we went to the back room where the CDH baby was at, she said babies with Doug's condition usually get a big room in the back that is shared with only one other baby (CDH babies don't do well with a lot of noise or commotion). We went into the room and met the little baby who had the surgery Dougie will have, she had quite a few tubes in and all around her, but it wasn't nearly as scary as I have imagined we even heard her cry a little which is great because her lungs are strong enough to let out a little whale. Debbie then took us around to the recovery room, where the NICU babies go once they are able to be taken off the ventilators and other machines. Then before we knew it the tour was over. All of the nurses and staff at CHOC were extremely kind, we feel very confident and comfortable which is great since we will be spending a lot of time there.
Lastly, we had our 30 week check up with the Nurse Practitioner at my OBGYN's office. The baby sounds great, and he is growing like crazy. I am only 30 1/2 weeks along and the baby is measuring at 34 weeks! I say the bigger the better!
Once again, we cannot thank you enough for your prayers. We know God is watching over us and our Douglas, and could not get through this without him!
We love you all, God Bless our little man,
Mere and Brad
“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell.” - Lance Armstrong
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