What a difference a day makes

Yesterday at this time I had just gotten home from work where I had been sitting in the parking lot, sobbing to my mom on the phone (after which I called my sister and sobbed some more while trying to drive myself home.) Yes, I know that this probably wasn't the safest decision I have ever made, but its done and over with. :) Now its 24 hours later, and while I still wish that Boston would have been an option for us, it wasn't. There is nothing that we can do about that, and no use dwelling over it. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. Now we just have to pick up where we left off and start making plans for the next few months. I can't believe how quickly time is going and how soon it is going to be that we get to meet our precious little girl...Who now has a name, by the way! When people ask me what it is, I like to tell them that we are naming her after Matt's sister.................................Kristen! I personally think that Kristen Ritchie has a nice ring to it.

Anyway, I thought that I would TRY to give you all a simplified explanation of Little Miss Ritchie's condition...

Pulmonary atresia (PA): PA is when the pulmonary valve that lets blood flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs has not formed properly or is closed. Sometimes it is due to a tissue membrane that forms over the valve. If this would have been the case, we may have been candidates for the in-utero procedure. My understanding is that they would have poked a hole through this membrane and then ballooned the valve open. In our situation, they cannot identify the pulmonary valve, meaning that they don't really have anything to go in and open up. This is the plain and simple reason why Boston was a no go.

Hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS): The problem above can lead to an underdeveloped right ventricle, which is the pumping chamber in the heart that send oxygen-poor blood to the lungs. Right now, our little girl's ventricle was described to us as "mild to moderately hypoplastic." What that means prognostically, we're not sure yet.

So that's where we stand right now. Unfortunately its hard to get good answers to our questions as they really won't know the full extent of things until after she is born. We were told that they would perform a heart cath after birth that will give them more information as to what is all going on. I called Dr. Sami's office this afternoon and am waiting to hear back as to when they want me back for another visit. I'm 27 weeks tomorrow so I would assume that we'll need to start talking about when and where this little monkey is going to be born and be put in touch with our future surgical team.

Next known doctors appointment is March 15 with the perinatologist. We have another ultrasound so hopefully we'll get some good pictures!