Surgery

The short story:  Dr. Johnson tells us the surgery went as well as possible.  C stays in the hospital tonight (with her mom and me), but is in good spirits and health.  We'll have another ultrasound tomorrow, then monitor the pregnancy closely the rest of the way.

The long story: we (C, her mom, and I) woke up at 5 am and drove to CHOP.  C was feeling uncomfortable due to increased amniotic fluid around the larger baby.  Left untreated, this excess fluid was likely to increase unchecked and contribute to further complications.  For our doctors, however, this fluid meant more room to operate.  To quote one of the three doctors who performed the surgery, "Posterior placenta and increased fluid?  That's two thumbs up for us."

At 6 am, doctors and nurses begin rotating through our room, prepping us with detailed information and giving C antibiotics and antacids.  Again, we were grateful for the detailed descriptions and attention given by the people at CHOP.  We are told (by Arjunan Ganesh, our anesthesiologist) that C will be given several drugs (including Valium and morphine) that will produce two primary effects: first, the drugs will calm the twins, making them less likely to move during the procedure; and second, the drugs will make C groggy but help her retain consciousness.  

At 7:50 am it was game time.  C, now dressed in a hospital robe and hairnet, walked with us down the hall where the entire surgical team (around 10 people?) greeted us.  When it came time for C to separate from us, the surgical team walked with her through the OR doors.  As she walked away, we could hear her say to the surgeons "So...is everyone feeling rested and alert?"  Everyone laughed.  Her mom and I walked back to the hospital room.

We expected the surgery to take one hour, so we went down to the cafeteria to get some food.  We returned to the room and ate.  We talked about anything we could think of to pass the time, but at 8:50 we sat silently and waited.  The surgery took one hour and fifteen minutes, and I can safely say that the last fifteen minutes were the longest of my life.

C was wheeled (in her hospital bed) back into the room at 9:05.  The doctors and nurses said that everything had gone as well as possible.  In addition to cauterizing 8 vessels (an average number, apparently), doctors removed 1400 ml of excess amniotic fluid (over a third of a gallon) that was around the larger baby.  C is now much more comfortable and noticeably smaller.  I would ask her for details about the goings-on in the OR, but she's sound asleep.

Now, we hope for equal growth between the twins.  Tomorrow, we'll have a follow up ultrasound and echocardiogram.  C will stay in the Philly area for the upcoming week, then have another ultra and echo on 7/13.  Every week thereafter, we'll check in with the twins to see how they're responding to the surgery. 

Thanks for your continued support, emails, calls and texts.  We're sorry if we weren't able to respond to each of you individually.  Much love to you all.  We'll continue to update today and throughout the week.