Diagnosed with TTTS: One Year Later

One year ago today I was nearly 19 weeks pregnant & getting a routine every-two week ultrasound at the perinatologist (high-risk doctors) when everything suddenly changed. Our ultrasound tech handed us blurry images filled with black unlike any we'd ever seen before.  As she left the room what felt like a million people entered and we knew the news we were about to hear wasn't good.  That black in the images was fluid, way too much fluid around a little boy we called baby B, soon to be known as the "recipient baby," now known as Connor Lansden.  The rest of the news about baby A "the donor" now known as Timothy Austin was all just as blurry as the sonogram photos.  We were officially dealing with Twin to Twin Transfusion.  My instructions were to go home, get in bed, spend as much time as possible lying on my left side, drink lots of water, and not get up other than to go to the bathroom or the kitchen.  Our goal (as set by our Dr.) make it to next week's ultrasound with no change.  I now know the reason the goal was for "no change" was because there was no way to reverse what we were seeing, not yet anyway. Our only hope at that point was to keep it from progressing aka getting worse. As you know from reading previous posts we didn't meet that goal! Over the next week we progressed from Stage 1 to Stage 4. There is no stage 5!  More on that next week!

I am reminded today of the fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and utter shock I felt on this day one year ago. Yet as I look down from this couch I see a nearly 8 month old "baby A" pulling up smiling and I hear a very loud "baby B" waving his jiggling toys in the air.  This holiday season we are overwhelmed with gratefulness. We are thankful for advances in medical technology that made life saving intrauterine surgery possible. We are thankful for doctors, technicians, nurses, and hospital staff members.  We are thankful for praying, cooking, & generous friends and family.  Most of all we are thankful that the only blurry pictures of the boys that pop up now are due to two mischievous, fast-moving, healthy little boys!