Today was another doctor filled day. I'm starting to just tell whoever is watching out kids we have no idea when we'll be home. Today I dropped the kids off to play with our friends, the Gillettes at 11am. I didn't return for them until 6pm. That is quite a commitment from our wonderful friends who agree to watch our kids.
I had my glucose tolerance test first which tests for gestational diabetes. I have never had it before, so am praying I am at least spared that this time around. We'll get results at next week's appointment. You have to sit there for an hour after drinking a sugar filled drink. Kevin brought me a subway sandwich to eat after they drew my blood as I wasn't able to eat for 3 hours before.
We went to meet with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Zouros at 2pm. We FINALLY saw him at after 4pm! I'm wondering if the Lord thinks I need patience. However, we really liked him and he spent significant time with us answering all our questions, so that was great. Dr. Zouros will do Melody's repair surgery at birth. He said he usually does them within 48 hours. Ideally, he said to have them schedule my c-section on a Monday as it is easier to get the surgery done during the week. But, we know Melody might arrive on her own time table.
He explained everything about spina bifida in great detail, a lot of which we already knew from our research. He seemed like a pretty laid-back doctor and wasn't alarmist about anything. He said the repair surgery is a pretty simple surgery. It can be more difficult, depending on the size of the lesion. If it is really large and there is not enough skin & muscle around the area, he will have to consult with a plastic surgeon to cover the opening. However, this is rare and he really doesn't know the size of the lesion until Melody is born and He looks at it. They can make guesses from the ultrasound, but they are not necessarily accurate. Dr. Zouros does about 3 of these repair surgeries each month, which is quite a few. He has been at Loma Linda for 6 years, so he has obviously done many of them. He said in many places neurosurgeons will only do 3 of these each year.
When Melody is born they will place a sterile covering over the exposed part of her back and keep her on her side or stomach until the surgery. Since I will be recovering from a c-section and Melody will have limited movement, holding or nursing her will likely not be possible or very minimal until after surgery. She will need to be on her stomach for some time after surgery as well.
We did learn that after Melody is born they will do ultrasound and I think another test. They will determine if she has hydrocephaly (fluid on the brain). If she has it, Dr. Zouros will place the shunt in her body at the same time he does the repair surgery. The shunt is basically a small tube which drains excess fluid from the brain to the abdomen.
Should Dr. Zouros be unavailable for some reason, the surgery would probably be done at Children's Hospital in Orange County. This has only happened once, so we don't expect a problem, but it is nice to know there is a backup, just in case.
We were just very impressed with the doctor and he seems to really know what he is doing. It helps to know who will be doing the surgery and that we feel comfortable with him. Of course, there are risks with both surgeries, and these were discussed as well, but mostly we knew them. Overall, we feel we know what we need to know for now.
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