Scariest Thing I have seen so far

There it is – that is the scariest thing I have seen so far.  I know – unless you are good at reading ultrasounds, you don’t have a clue what I am talking about.  And even if you do, you would need some context.  Fortunately for me, someone else had done an ultrasound 2 weeks earlier and had already made the diagnosis.  What you are looking at is an 18 week pregnancy ultrasound.  The important part is what you don’t see.  You don’t see the wall of the uterus. That’s because this pregnancy isn’t inside the uterus.  It’s what we call an abdominal pregnancy.  It’s growing outside the uterus and the placenta is probably attached to all sorts of things it shouldn’t be, like the bowels, or maybe the ovaries, or maybe, if we are lucky, only the outside of the uterus.  Guess when the last time I saw one of these was?  Yes you guessed it. Almost exactly 1 year ago, here.  And before that?  I can’t remember.  Probably in training.  Everything will be fine unless   …  she bleeds internally, or the uterus starts to contract, or the placenta starts invading the bowel or the bladder.  Even if none of that happens, you still have to deliver the baby without disrupting anything else when she gets to term.  I won’t get in to the details, but the surgery is not for the faint of heart.

On the topic of scary things – apnea in a premature baby weighing only 900g is pretty scary as well.  I was called at 0400 this morning to deal with just that problem.  We (mostly the midwives) bagged her for an hour and ½ and now she is breathing on her own.  She has definitely taken a step or two backwards though.  We will probably have to stop feeding by the NG tube (through the nose in to the stomach) and go back to intravenous fluids.  We just don’t have the proper equipment to do all that is necessary for these little ones, but we do what we can, and some of them survive.  And we pray, a lot, often.

As if that wasn’t scary enough, there is a new little one in the nursery that is only 714g (see above).  He was delivered AT HOME!  He is doing OK at the moment, but it is a long road ahead and I would be foolish if I thought everything would go well.  More prayer needed.

Psalm 23:4 KJV

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me