Post Operation

After a 4am wake up and a restless night with my tumbleweed toddler in the bed with me, we arrived at Carolina Medical Center. This darn flu epidemic really screwed up both my mom and kc being with me at the same time. No one under 18 is allowed past waiting room so someone had to be with Troy. Basically my mom and KC have been playing tag all morning coming to see me.

The experience so far has been wonderful. My team of nurses and anethesiologist have been wonderful and extremely  thorough. By this I mean I've been asked 8x if I've had anything  to eat or drink since midnight. I mean are they trying to make me hangry?  I'm all up on the new slang. In all seriousness all their ducks were in a row and the process was painless and smooth. Overwhelming but smooth. After I got off Viber  jt(comforting to see his face and hear his voice)this morning  my nerves started gaining but I kept my composure. I wish he was here during my epidural. He was my rock. Literally I leaned on him when they gave me one with Troy haha.  The whole OR team came in and introduced themselves. My favorite was Shala. The most uplifting joyful and God fearing Persian beauty. Honestly I just wanted to stare at  her and listen to her talk. She grabbed my hand and looked me dead in the eye and said "Lauren  I've heard your case and you and your girls  are going to be just fine. I've prayed over your room and this team and if you have fear or worry just let it go and let there be peace. God has got this. Amen."  Famous words of KC Berry, "drop  the mic and boom.done!"

They wheeled me back for what seemed like 10 minutes. This place is huge! I felt like I was in an episode  of Grey's or ER. The room was bright white and the lights were even  brighter. I counted. There were 11 staff in the room counting the 2 surgeons. Talk about overstimulation all while  they're giving me an epidural and another drug to make me loopy.

They laid me down and I don't remember a ton. I was groggy but again not asleep because they needed my uterus to be taught so they could be precise when inserting the needle to find the a-cardiac triplet. My sweet Persian anesthetist goddess, Shala, who never left my side whispered in my ear. "Do you want to listen to some Christian music?" I said sure please. She put some sort of technology by my ear but I could still hear Dr. Stephenson and Dr. Ianitti talking. I heard some laughter and i heard some questions  but couldn't make anything out. I didn't want to. I was numb but could tell they were inserting the needle and using the ultrasound. That was making me nervous and I knew that was not how I needed to be. They lifted the canopy from over my head and I asked for more volume. My focus was to breathe and be positive and relax and I'd deal with what they told me later.

Two heartbeats. Whew! ( that's for you KC ;) 

I'm in recovery making sure I don't go into labor. They have a belt monitoring to see if there are any contractions  for 24hrs. Oh my gosh. The road ahead is along and tomorrow morning is HUGE as we will do an ultrasound on the girls. My prayers are for their healthy hearts and good fluid in their sacs. Things have obviously shifted with there now only being 2. Those are the concerns. God has been so so good. You all have been steadfast and I don't know how to thank you all for your prayers and or good vibes and well wishes. It's  overwhelming and our family is so fortunate and blessed by you all.

Cheers, LB

the perfect candidate

I have now had 12 ultrasounds since Christmas Eve morning; much more than the average mama bear ;) My stomach is over it and so is my racing heart. That machine gives me anxiety! I can't decide which is worse; to look at the machine or the ultrasound techs face. I went for my last follow up ultrasound to determine surgery this past Wednesday. The a-cardiac triplet has grown so it is definitely necessary to move forward with the microwave ablasion before the situation becomes more risky say in a month from now. I will report on Wednesday January 14th at 5 am  at Carolina Medicl Center in Charlotte and surgery will start at 7am.  I should be all done by 830am and have a contraction band placed on my belly for 24 hours and then the babies will have an ultrasound on Thursday morning and they will be fine and I will go home and take it easy! Easy right?? RIGHT???

I have to say that I have been fearing the worst and suffering insomnia has not made it easier. I have found my dream homes and cars and the best baby gear but still I worry. 1 Kings 19:12 talks about an earthquake and a fire both of which I feel I have gone through. I was shaken up by this news of twins and yet again by a third mass which was almost a triplet. The fire has been these last two weeks and this impeding surgery. Talk about information overload. I mean they have talking about electric shock and microwaves. Throughout it all I've had this sense of peace and do truly believe our girls will be ok. I hear this still, small voice telling me to relax and that there is nothing to fear. I hear this voice in all the prayers I know are being said.

Dr. Stephenson has sat me down twice now and she has called me the perfect candidate for this surgery. I am the perfect size and health etc. HAHA. I too will hold on to this hope and still small voice that I am perfect for this surgery and this situation and therefore the surgery and the girls will be perfectly healthy.

J.T. and I thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for caring and praying for us and our family. We truly are blessed with incredible family and friends. Did I mention my sister in law KC is working remotely from here for the quarter. She literally is packing up her life in LA and moving here to take care of Troy, Kay and I until the girls arrive. As if working on her doctorate at UCLA wasn't enough now she has to deal with an achy mom and tornado of a toddler. We truly are blessed. To all my mommy friends and you know you are thank you for taking care of Troy and all the little things you do on a daily basis to make motherhood so much easier. I am happy my mom will be coming for two weeks and during the surgery. There is nothing like having your mother around. Just thank you to everyone who has offered to help. I am not good at accepting it or asking for it but Lord knows we need it right now. Thank you!

I will keep everyone posted in the days to come.

Cheers, LB

Our Birth Story

Over the last several months I have been feeling pretty lethargic and somber. J.T. has been gone and I have been trying to keep Troy and Kay alive, educated, and entertained, the house clean, and keep up on the job front. I felt rundown and at times overwhelmed and sorry for myself. The last month or so has been rough. My stomach has been giving me major problems. I had convinced myself that I had cysts or tumors from miscarriage complications. Even had KC on board! I called my OB's office and on Christmas Eve went in for an internal ultrasound. All the emotions of being in that room and having someone tell me there was no heartbeat came flooding back and I knew that more bad news was to come. My cycle had not returned and I could feel lumps. The sonographer asked me if I knew I was EH HEM…pregnant! I said NO, in a state of panic thinking you better order up a DNA test because of course when someone tells you that you are pregnant you of course assume it happened the day before right ;) She then switches to the ultrasound on my stomach and says  "well you are 16 weeks along" um I am sorry 16 weeks-there was more shock then relief. I was happy and then she says well " I know I have thrown a lot at you but there are TWO in there!" Ok lady, shut up! The tears flowed as I weeped "I am sorry I came in here expecting you to tell me I had cysts. That my child rearing days were over that I had to prepare for surgery." I mean I just had a miscarriage on 8/21 and he deployed 9/11!!! That is 21 days. Is this even possible???  Well yes dumby, when you have sex you can get pregnant. She didn't say that I did haha. I sat in the hall waiting to see Dr. Horvath. I was smiling, panicking, knowing this was prayer and blessings. I ran to the waiting room and got KC and Troy and when I closed the door I showed KC the folder and the picture of two heads. Her reaction was very smilier to mine. Ugly tears, shock, smiling, uncomfortable laughing! :) I am so blessed by her. She loves so hard and gives up so much all for her love for our family. It's not reasonable and I get my hand batted away a lot. How can I ever repay her for who she is and what she does?

Dr. Horvath sits down and says. Ok well we need to speak about your ultrasound. Pursed lips ensue by both KC and I.  As KC said couldn't you have just dropped the mic and been like Merry Christmas you're having twins??? But, no she had to steal the show and a little thunder. She said the sonographer saw three babies on the ultrasound but only two heartbeats. Wait what? I had triplets No, no this baby never formed into an actual fetus there is no heart and no head only a body, legs and blood flow. OK, cool. I got twins. I am happy. She sends us over to the Women's Hospital to have further scans done.Wundebar. My heart is beating out of my chest but they needed to take a closer look. We literally hop in the car and head straight over. Mom of the year right here Troy had Doritos' and  Sour Patch Kids for lunch AND some sugary juice whaaaaaat. What's that you hear? Silence. A happy baby! For about 45 min Troy watches Paw Patrol while Nicole scans me to figure out the ultimate alogorythim. How many sacs, placentas, membranes, and umbilical cords? Who is sharing what with who.

Well I am having identical twin girls!!! They have two separate sacs YAY, but share a placenta, not so YAY!! Baby A and Baby B which of you is sharing a sac with Baby C( the a-cardiac abnormality/mass)? Well, Lauren said Dr. Whitecar this is an extremely unusual pregnancy with a HUGE smile on his face. You know when a chef finally gets a ticket with something other than the house specialties yea well this was the excitement he was showing but for me extreme and unusual was not what I wanted to hear! Carolina Medical Center here I come because Baby C has got to go, not out of my stomach but it has got to be cauterized and remain until delivery. It is not healthily that it is shunting blood with either baby A or B(TBD). That is valuable nutrients and strength and bloodflow that the healthy twins will need.

Five grueling and anxious days later I arrive in Charlotte with KC and Troy in tow. More ultrasounds are up on the deck. I laid for nearly 2.5 hours while they searched for cords and separating membranes. Dr Stepehnson will be my specialist and she did the 3rd and final scan. Surgery is necessary and to her immediate while some other opinions differ. She feels it's better to tackle this now and deal with what repercussions may come(HOPEFULLY NONE) before they are at the crucial 24 week age.  4 different surgery options but we have decided to go with Microwave Antenna Ablasion. The heat is focused and not scattered. The mass will be destroyed by the microwaves and bloodflow will prayerfully be restored to normal, the babies will not show any signs of distress and remain healthy.

My biggest risks are 1) Preterm labor and 2) TTS( Twin to Twin Transfusion) this is basically like if 1 kid in your house gets sick so do all the rest of you. Remember when I said the girls shared a placenta. The umbilical cords all connect to the placenta so if 1 gets sick they both risk getting sick or one could get more than the other.

Questions you may have:

1) How did J.T. react to the news of me being pregnant?  Well after staring at the screen for about 6 seconds with a straight face he finally and only said "How" :) After he processed all the above information we have determined our Honda Accord will not work for four kids and that he is ecstatic!

2) When is the surgery? Dr Stephenson will have to coordinate with another Dr. who is a liver oncologist. It'll be the week of the 12th but not sure of an exact date. The machine they are using is used on patients with liver problems but Dr. Stephenson being the baller she is determined it could be used on fetuses if necessary.  These two are the only surgeons in the world to have performed this surgery together. 12 times with a 100% success rate. The procedure is the easy part, approximately 3min. The risks of the surgery are the scary and hard part.

3) What is your condition called? A term you can look up is: TRAP Sequence in Triplets. It's very rare so not a lot of articles come up.

3) What can I do to help? Aside from prayer nothing at the moment unless you so desire. Unless you can supply us with a white Ford Flex ;)

I am feeling fine. Pregnant HA but fine. I am a nervous and anxious wreck but remain hopeful that the girls will be OK! My mom is looking to take off work and all my wonderful friends and family have stepped up and offered to especially help with Troy as I will be needing to be taking it easy for 1-2 weeks to keep myself and the girls' blood pressure down and as we know toddlers don't help with that no matter how cute they are! ;)


Cheers, LB

Update: Surgery Scheduled for Wednesday January 14th

deploying

0545

It was not an easy morning.  Leave it to the military to have your loved one's deploy on 9/11. Having kids makes you so scattered brained sometimes that you get distracted from the inevitable. Kay and Troy helped but when the bus pulled up and the Colonel said it was time to go,  I could feel the tears building up in my throat. I kept it together except for some little tears but when I was hugging Kay as daddy was walking toward the bus and I could feel her shake and hear her sniffling... It broke me. All you could hear were airplanes taking off and sniffles from all the family members.  Some of the kids( and I use that term literally) deploying with J.T.  are 18 years old. J.T. took one under his wing. I can't imagine being 18 and flying across the world to a place full of sand and people who despise you and plot your death and pray for it daily. Bombs overhead. Rockets being launched. IED's planted on the side of the road. I can't imagine being that young and facing that for the first time. I pray for the safety and sanity of our Troops no matter their age. I certainly am appreciative of their courage and sacrifice. God Bless. USAF Proud

breakfast 

guns

paperwork

running on 4 hours sleep. 

kay lol

love my family

thick as thieves

if Troy isn't clinging to me Kay gets the brunt of it :)

last group hug

she took it hard but bounced back quickly

c-130  daddy's plane

kay took random pics all over the hotel

playing

air muesum on base where the Miracle on the Hudson plane is

in a fighter jet. Grandpa is happy

Cessna 150. First plane Grandpa ever flew

Cheers, LB

hops burger bar

A must go! Fine beer and fine burgers. Hops is near spring garden and Holden in Greensboro. It's a dive place as I like to say but it's up to date! Here's the menu!