The devastating check up - 11th June 2009

Today the rollercoaster ride that people talk about with CDH babies continued. Up to this point we have been trying our best to stay positive, assuming that the balloon would work and that if I could get to at least 32 but ideally 34 weeks then the baby would have 50% chance of survival, which given our previous stats we would be delighted with.

On a positive note my fluid levels are still between 26cm and 28cm so no drainage needed (although still no cervical length taken).

Phillip started to discuss the option of us relocating to London to have the baby. Our consultant was pretty indifferent, but this appeared to prompt her to calculate the LHR. She was unsure of the formula but once she got it right she did the calculation and got 0.2!!!!!! This meant that it had decreased from 0.6 to 0.2. We were both absolutely devastated. I commented that it meant things had got worse and asked did she see any improvement in the lung? She said she did not.

This figure seemed very low so I called Catalina (our consultant at Kings) who said that she had never seen an LHR decrease and that she must have calculated it wrong. This settled my mind ever so slightly as I was confident she was wrong with the 0.2 but I couldnt help but think that as a qualified obstetrician she should be able to see lung growth on an ultrasound even if she cannot do the calculation. I was convinced that she hadnt wanted to say anthing but when we began talking about relocating she thought it was time to give us the news that the balloon wasnt working.

We are heading over to Kings College on Tuesday for a scan to confirm. If there has been a good improvement we will disucss delivering there. I am so so worried as I never explored the possibility that the balloon would not work, I suppose yet again this is your bodys way of coping. Now I am aware of just how likely it is they are going to tell us that the balloon is not working. I discussed with Phillip and we agreed that if that is the case then we have to accept that we have done everything we can and that all we can do is wait and see how the baby is at birth. However, we know we need a miracle.