hi all

well we saw the specialist last thursday and he diagnosed a different defect than originally thought - although equally as bad, but more rare. he diagnosed "Truncus Arteriosus" (instead of two arteries (aorta and pulmonary artery) there is only one, so oxygenated and deoxygenated blood mix) and a large VSD (hole in the heart). apparently, TA occurs in 1 birth out of 10,000 so quite rare - lucky us. it will involve a minimum of 3 major open heart surgeries; the first between the age of 2 - 6 weeks, then again at 3-5 years and again at puberty (the later surgeries to replace a valve that does not grow with the child).

we spoke with the specialist again on friday afternoon, to go over it again in more detail and to ask our list of 1000 questions. we went home feeling really negative and horrible and still not knowing what we were going to do. but something weird happened - we had a good night sleept and woke up on saturday morning and we both felt that we wanted to keep the baby and fight. it was strange because we were leaning towards a termination the night before. and once we had made the decision to continue, we both feel almost normal again! and much more positive and happy. there is going to be a huge road ahead of us, especially in the first few weeks after the baby is born. it will be heartbreaking to watch our baby go through these surgeries, but we will just have to hope and pray for the best.

so fingers crossed everyone!! my job over the next few months is to fatten up this little thing inside me, to make it big and strong for when it enters the world in late Feb. so i better go and eat!