Bye Bye Cincinnati!

So today was our follow up appointment at Cincinnati!

Here is a recap of the progress with Lorelei's heart.

With regards to a heart, both the left and right ventricles are supposed to be performing at a certain rate labeled as "normal". This rate is .45

Before surgery Lorelei's heart (both ventricles) were at about .56... this constituted TTTS stage IIIc (I believe the beginning of that stage). This is where we get the cardiomyopathy. This is part of the reason we decided for the surgery. After surgery they expect to see no change. Apparently, our follow up 6 days after surgery showed that Lorelei's heart (both sides) went up to about .62 This is not good, so they had us return today for another follow up. After the ECHO today we got in early to see the doctor and he told us that things are looking better! Lorelei's heart is not recovered, however, her left ventricle is now at .48!!! Her right ventricle still has not changed, it is still around .62 The doctor is not overly concerned and stated that the right ventricle takes a longer time to recover/heal than the left. Same with the thickening around her heart, it has not changed. This is the last thing to see any changes.

So all in all, she is improving, but we're not out of the woods! They told us we did not have to return to Cincinnati and should be seen by a specialist in Indianapolis once or twice before delivery to ensure her heart is continuing to improve. We are to continue having weekly ultrasounds, unless my HR doctor says otherwise... and we are hoping for a delivery date of March 23rd at the earliest! I am also to stay on bedrest, STRICT bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy. As for any side effects of this for Lorelei, she maybe born with high blood pressure... but a good chance it will not have to be controlled by medication.

Also, last appointment we had her growth checked and she was 7oz and at the 54th percentile. TODAY Ms. Lorelei is 11oz and at the 85th percentile! She's a growing machine!!!

So here are the pictures that my mommy uploaded for me! I hope you can see them well enough. I'll be working on them some more to separate them and make them better to see. I have included pictures of Maddison as well...

Lorelei's surgery pictures. I think she looks like she's in a bubble.

I believe this is Maddison. Top left, is her profile; Top right, shows she's a girl; bottom she's waving!

This is Maddison. I think she took the best pictures... as you can see she was sucking her thumb in one picture.

Here you see Maddison. However, the feet that you see are Lorelei's. These pictures show Maddison dancing on Lorelei's head!

Here is Lorelei. You can see her head is covered because it is being crushed by Maddison :-P

All of these pictures, except the top were taken the day we were told the twins had TTTS. They both look health and happy in these pictures. So looking back at exactly 1 week after these pictures we were left with only 1 beating heart... it's almost impossible to "understand".