Scans Reveal Same Ol'

Today was the big day to rescan everything and see if there were any changes. Everything is still looking good for the most part. My spleen hasn't shown any significant changes since the last scan (I think even positionally, it is similar, which is good because it means my uterus hasn't begun to squish it too much yet). Baby is still measuring small, but no one seems to be concerned - she has grown on par with what she is expected to since the last scan -- hallelujah! The previa is still there. At this point, I can't get a good answer about whether it's still a complete previa, or if my uterus has caused it to migrate some giving me a partial previa or a marginal previa. They said on one of the ultrasound pictures, it looked like it might not be covering my cervix completely (which would indicate it might be migrating) -- regardless, though, it's still a previa, so they plan to keep me at the hospital as long as the previa persists. I suspect they'll order another scan in a few weeks to check everything out again.

Despite being sentenced recommended for continued bed rest, we are VERY thankful that we are still stable and that Baby Z looks good! We're just two days away from the third trimester -- considering the scare we had when we got here three weeks ago thinking we might be in preterm labor, we are beyond grateful that we have made it this far.

Paul (with help from his parents and our sister-in-law, Erica) has completed the painting of the nursery so the plan is to order the crib this week and get that set up. I believe a baby shower is in the works for us on October 6th at the hospital -- they actually have a room specifically for that purpose - how cool is that?! And I've noticed a big growth in my belly in the past week - a shirt I wore about a week ago is much tighter than it was the week before.

Thanks for the continued prayers for all of us as we trust in God to get Baby Z here in His perfect timing and that He will protect my spleen from rupturing. We are thankful to all of you for your prayers and support.

Here are some pictures of Baby Z from today:

27w4d

Feet!!

--Amber

Tests Keep Pointing to Good News

Baby Z and I are still doing well but are still on bed rest for the time being. The staff at Mission Hospital has been great and plans have been made for pretty much every scenario that might come up over the next couple of months.

I have received the two rounds of steroid shots to help speed the development of Baby Z's lungs and I have received three vaccinations that will help build my immune system for when they take my spleen (Meningococcal, Pneumococcal, Haemophilus b). We had an ultrasound to check on the cyst on my spleen and while it appears to be in a bit of a different position than it was the last two times, it does not appear to be making any significant growths or changes so that is very very good news. The ultrasound we got when we first were admitted (on August 27th) showed that the placenta previa is still complete and that there are "spots" of blood that have formed between the uterus and the placenta (which is normal in pregnancy) - however, since my placenta is over my cervix, that blood has a place to leak, which might be the reason for the bleeding I had. It could also be a blood clot forming, though, but it was too early to tell at the last ultrasound whether it was a normal pool or if it is a blood clot.

I also had an MRI done because I've had a facial twitch since one of our first pregnancies (so several years now). They wanted to rule out that I had a cyst or growth in my brain as it would affect the choice of anesthesia they could use when we get ready to deliver. Thankfully, the MRI came back normal, so the twitch could just be Bells Palsy or Hemifacial Spasm.

We've been told that we'll revisit whether they want me to stay in the hospital or be released after the next ultrasound (which is scheduled for September 17th). They will look at the August 27th ultrasound and compare it to determine what's going on and then we can discuss whether I am to stay on bed rest in the hospital, at home, or if I can have some of my restrictions lifted. Baby Z will be 27 weeks along by then, so she'll be getting big enough to start squishing my organs up which is when we have to start really monitoring the cyst on my spleen, so even if the previa is looking stable, they may decide to keep us hospitalized until delivery just because of that. I am mentally preparing myself to be here for the long haul.

It still sounds like we're looking to have a C-section at 36 weeks at the latest (mid-November) as long as nothing goes wrong before that which would require her to come any earlier.

Fortunately, though, all of the monitoring we've done has been normal - Baby Z is very active and we're both doing fine!

If anyone is local to Asheville and wants to come by and visit, feel free! We are at Mission Hospital in the Maternal/Fetal wing in room C494. Paul is doing good - still visiting every day and is now in charge of the house, laundry, getting the nursery ready and still working full-time. Amber is still doing some work from the hospital - thank goodness for wifi and the ability to do a lot of that from afar.

Thank you all for praying for us and Baby Z. We are hoping to keep her "cooking" for as long as possible! We can't wait to meet this little miracle when she gets here.

-Amber

Bed Rest for Mom and Baby Z

When we found out in July that we had placenta previa, we were told that there were risks with it and if there was any bleeding, there was a possibility that the prescription would include bed rest. We were hoping for no complications, but at 24 weeks on the nose, Amber woke up with some bleeding and promptly went back to lay in bed until the Dr.'s office was open. Though there was quite a bit of blood at first, it had stopped on its own within an hour. Amber and Paul rushed off to the doctor as soon as they could, though, since bleeding with previa can be a sign of preterm labor (and preterm labor with previa can lead to death for mom and baby if ignored).

The Dr. looked Amber over and confirmed that her body did not appear to be going into preterm labor (praise the Lord!!) and checked on baby and said she had a very strong heartbeat and good movement for only being 24 weeks along. Amber was sent home and advised to stay in the bed the rest of the day to be sure there was no more bleeding and no sign of contractions (and to make sure Baby Z continued to move well). At the end of the day, there were no other issues.

Friday morning, Amber was out and about again running errands, working some, grocery shopping, etc. Everything was fine most of the day but then at 6:15 another gush of blood hit. It wasn't a lot and it quickly stopped again, but it was still scary. After another gush Saturday morning, Amber laid in the bed most of the day Saturday just in case. Most of the day was uneventful and then another gush around 8:30pm. Thankfully Sunday was bleed free, but out of concern, Paul recommended Amber call the Dr. first thing on Monday morning to at least make them aware of the additional bleeding episodes.

Amber called and let them know that there was some more spotting over the weekend, but it seemed to have stopped. However, the Dr. said she would strongly advise Amber go to the hospital to get checked over. Thinking little of it, Amber went straight to the hospital where they checked her out again and said it did not appear that preterm labor was occurring, but that previas can go from nothing to major in the snap of a finger. Since there were multiple bleeds, the hospital decided it was best to admit Amber and keep her on bed rest.

So it's been nearly a week of bed rest at the hospital now. There has been a slew of medical professionals consulting about Baby Z, about the previa, about the splenic cyst, about the parasite, etc. It's been a bit overwhelming, but we've gotten A LOT of good news through the process such as:

Baby Z is very active for her gestation age and heartbeat is very strong -- we have heard that over and over from multiple people. We also got some great looks at her on the ultrasound - her hand completely open "waving" at us (which rules out a lot of genetic disorders since many babies with genetic problems will have their hands clasped constantly). We got a great view of her mouth and got to watch her swallow (and cleft palate was ruled out which also helps rule out some genetic disorders where cleft pallet is a common condition). We counted all of her fingers and toes again. She looks great (but is measuring small for her gestation - something we've been told not to worry about for now -- it could just be genetics playing into that).

Every test we've had done on Amber has shown that her body is not preparing for labor which is the biggest concern with previas. However, since the staff has to plan for an emergency situation, all of them have been making plans for what happens if the splenic cyst were to burst, what happens if Amber were to hemorrhage and they couldn't stop labor, what happens if Baby Z appears in distress, etc. etc. Thankfully, being in the hospital has led to a lot of discussion on how to treat the parasite, cyst, baby and Amber so we feel like we're in great hands. The surgeons have all decided that it would be safest for Amber to try to do the C-section first and once mom and baby are good, they will deal with removing the spleen later. It may be only days later, but it sounds like the C-section/spleen removal combo surgery is now off the table except in an emergency.

In addition, Amber has received two steroid shots already which will help speed up Baby Z's lung development so if she has to come early, she has a much better chance for survival. Amber got three vaccinations so her body can start to build up immunity to certain diseases which are very serious for people who do not have spleens, so Amber will have a better chance of not contracting those diseases when the spleen is taken. Amber also started taking the medication to kill the parasite so hopefully by the time Baby Z gets here and the spleen is removed, the parasite will be gone and it will just be time for recovery and getting back to normal (or the new normal, rather).

For now, the hospital is being overly cautious due to all of the scenarios going on and are keeping Amber hospitalized on bed rest for what sounds like a couple of weeks at least. After another ultrasound in a couple of weeks to check on the previa and to see if Amber has any more bleeding episodes, a decision will be made about whether Amber goes on full bed rest at home, if she stays in the hospital (possibly until delivery), or if the previa has moved, if she can have some of the restrictions lifted.

It's been a whirlwind and bed rest is something we were hoping wouldn't happen, but having someone bring you food all day and let you listen to your baby's heart beat several times a day isn't the worst thing in the world. So we're just going with the flow and making sure Baby Z is as safe as possible. If that means sitting on a bed for another 2-3 months, so be it (but we've still got our fingers crossed that the previa will resolve before then).

So that's the latest update! Amber and Baby Z are doing fine despite the hospital hiccup. Paul is being wonderful coming to visit Amber and make sure the house is taken care of and the nursery getting set up. We are so excited to meet Baby Z -- what a story we have to tell her about getting her here! She's already such a little miracle.

Thanks for praying for us that she is able to stay in the womb for as long as possible and none of the complications will require her to get here too early.

This is Baby Z waving at us as we are getting checked out and checked in to the hospital. Hi everyone! :)

Baby Registry

Hi friends and family,

Several of you have been asking about a baby registry so if you're interested in contributing, we have one set up on Amazon.com that will ship straight to us!

If you want to buy something on your own and mail it to us, please mail it to the following address (as sometimes UPS delivers things while we're at work and in the past, packages have gone missing). It will arrive to me at work! :)

Amber Zoller
35 Clayton Rd
Arden, NC 28704

If you want to check out the registry, it can be found at the following URLs:

Baby Z's Amazon Registry

Baby Z's Target Registry

We also live really close to a Walmart and a Target, so gift cards are very useful.

Thanks so much!!

Update on Baby Z

We had our anatomy scan on Friday, July 20th. Here is an update:

The unofficial report on my spleen scan is that it is still 9cm (HALLELUJAH). I say unofficial because the ultrasound tech is not supposed to tell me the results she sees, but I told her it was 9cm last October and she told me it still looked to be 9cm. So that's good news (should know more in a few days when the radiologist does an official analysis).

Baby is doing just fine and the anatomy scan looked good - we're having a GIRL. However, during the scan, it was discovered that my placenta has grown covering my cervix causing me to have placenta previa. Due to that we'll have to be scheduled for a C-section at around 36 weeks or earlier, which in a way, is somewhat good news -- it eliminates us having to decide how to proceed in regards to the cyst on my spleen. Since C-section is finite now, they think it would be best to go ahead and remove my spleen at the same time. And since it's not as safe to remove my spleen without having first treated the parasite, I am going to be doing the albendazole treatment to kill the parasite starting in the next few weeks and probably lasting the duration of the pregnancy.

The high-risk OBG we met with in Greenville has quelled our fears about a lot of that -- he has done medicine in other parts of the world and has treated pregnant women with the drug and says there have been no ill effects on mom or baby. I have also been researching what I can online and haven't found anything that indicates baby will be negatively affected by the treatment (everything I've found indicates that as long as it's done in the second trimester, everything seems to end up fine with mom and baby).

So we have a definite game plan, so that's good. The placenta previa is going to be cause for concern though - if I were to do anything to aggravate that condition, it could be detrimental to me and baby. 

For our praying friends and family who want to know how to specifically pray:

• Pray that the Albendazole treatment will be effective in killing the parasite and won't cause any complications to baby or to me.
• Pray that there will not be any complications with the placenta previa which could cause me to be on bed rest for weeks to months. It could also cause us to have to deliver baby earlier than 36 weeks which will cause complications in her. Pray that we are able to make it successfully to 36 weeks and that Baby Z will have her lungs developed by the time she has to be delivered.
• Pray that there will be no complications with the removal of my spleen during the C-section.

If all goes well, it sounds like Miss Baby Z will be arriving sometime in November. :)

Thankful for all of you and your prayers and support.

-Amber

Our Little Miracle

I hope you've had a chance to read the previous post about what has been going on from Amber's mystery illness to receiving the positive pregnancy test result! If not, go back and check it out as that information will likely come back into play as we get closer to baby time. :)

Click here to read the previous entry

On April 6th, just on a whim, I took a pregnancy test for the second time in a week. I was not going to start the medication for the parasite until I was completely sure that we were not pregnant, not that I was expecting it since we tried unsuccessfully for about two and a half years...but I just had an inkling that God was up to something. After I gave the metabolic blood sample on April 3rd, I came home and took a pregnancy test and it came back negative. I didn't really have any symptoms of pregnancy (I had with the previous two) but just had an inkling in the back of my mind, something like wouldn't it be funny if NOW is the time. Three days later I decided to test again since I'd had minor cramps all week but no monthly visitor and low and behold - POSITIVE. It was the Friday before Easter and Paul was getting off work early due to Good Friday. I remember he called and said he had an errand to run before coming home, but I asked that he forgo the errand and come home first. "Everything okay?", he asked. "Yeah, I just need you to come home first," I told him. I didn't want him to suspect anything while he was driving home and I wanted to tell him in person. When he walked in, he asked, "What's going on?" and I said, "Would you care to take a guess?" He didn't suspect a thing so I just handed him the test with the two pink lines. I think he was about as shocked as I was.

Considering our plans to treat me had changed in a matter of minutes to plans to take care of developing baby, we were a bit overwhelmed with emotions and questions and "What will all of this mean?" in regards to my health types of questions. Paul's parents came over for dinner and we had a time of prayer and even though we had a slew of questions about what all of this could mean if we had a successful pregnancy, we still felt a sense of peace. I've never been so certain of God's hand being over me than I was in those first few hours - of course, there's still a sense of worry, especially for me since I like to be in control (which is hilarious...how in control are we of things anyway, but I digress).

We decided since it was late in the day, we'd call the OBG first thing Monday and give her the scoop. In the meantime, I remembered the prescription she'd given me at our first visit just over a year before - she told me that since we had lost two pregnancies (and didn't know why) that as soon as I got a positive next time to immediately begin taking progesterone and a baby aspirin (just in case the previous problems were related to my body having a blot clot disorder or not producing enough hormones on my own to sustain the pregnancy). I took the prescription in to get filled and started that immediately until we could see her on Monday.

Monday morning I called the office and told them I needed to speak with the doctor as soon as possible. They did their usual "Oh, you're pregnant, well let's set you up for the interview and coupons and congratulations and we'll see you in a few weeks", but I was adamant that I needed to be seen that very day. They scheduled me and Paul and I sat down with her and gave her the background of my previous six months, the diagnosis of the parasite, the symptoms of sickness that we were unable to identify, etc. We all agreed that step one was to see if this pregnancy would make it since we had no answers as to why the other two did not. She took some blood from me to see if my hcg levels were rising, asked me to come back a couple of days later and told me to stay on the baby aspirin and progesterone in the meantime. Our first ultrasound was scheduled for a couple of weeks later (at around 6 weeks) since that's when you can first identify baby via ultrasound.

A few days later I was told that the blood work looked good. However, we were taken aback a bit when I experienced some bleeding the weekend before our first ultrasound. It wasn't too heavy and I hadn't lost the pregnancy symptoms I'd developed, so that was encouraging, but any bleeding during pregnancy is cause for worry. I didn't know what to expect when we went in for our first ultrasound - was the bleeding a sign of impending miscarriage? Was it something else?

Our first pregnancy loss we found out the baby had stopped developing at 6 weeks and had no heartbeat; our second pregnancy loss we saw a gestational sac that measure at about 7 1/2 weeks but there was no baby in it, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect this time. But she got me ready, wheeled in the ultrasound machine, and within seconds we were looking at the tiny little bean and a fluttering dot of the heart beating away! I knew I would cry either way, but just the sheer JOY of seeing a heartbeat on that screen was so overwhelming! While looking around at the baby and my uterus, the doctor identified a blood clot in my uterus (which was determined to be the cause of the bleeding). She told us that about 20% of women experience bleeding during pregnancy and of those, 50% will keep and 50% will lose. She said only time would tell if the blood clot would affect the baby or not. We were asked to come back one week later to make sure it looked like baby was growing and that we still had a heartbeat and to check on the clot. One week later, we got to take home our first baby picture:

 

Baby Z had grown and was measuring close to 8 weeks at the appointment. So far so good! She could still see the blood clot and said we wouldn't know for sure if the pregnancy would be viable until closer to the end of the first trimester, but she said not to worry too much about any bleeding unless it was really heavy. So I tried not to stress - nothing we could do any way but wait and see.

But as we went in for our 10 week appointment, we were able to hear Baby Z's heartbeat via fetal doppler and it was strong! The doctor told us that at that point in time, she was confident that the blood clot was no longer cause for concern. At 12 weeks, we were given the all-clear and congratulations to expect Baby Z mid-December or before!

I haven't had any more bleeding since then and my belly is growing, growing, growing. Nearing 18 weeks, my all-day, everyday morning sickness is dissipating (THANK YOU, LORD) and I'm slowly starting to get my appetite back. We're meeting with a high risk OBG in Greenville, SC next Friday, July 20th to get a look at baby (hopefully we'll find out if it's a he or a she) and we'll get to see if the cyst on my spleen has grown. If it has, we will have to keep a closer eye on how baby pushes my organs -- if too much pressure starts to form against my spleen, Baby Z may be coming earlier than December! If not, though, I think they'll let me carry as long as I'm not in danger. We'll just have to watch and see as baby gets bigger! But regardless, Baby Z should be making his/her debut before 2013! Yippee!

Update on Amber's Health Fiasco

We have been so slack on updating our blog -- our apologies! Paul has been busy teaching himself new skills, such as building a webpage, which means our very basic webpage is getting a very major makeover! With that in mind, Amber realized how much she had been slacking on the blog and decided it might be time to get it in gear! :)

So let's start with what's been going on since last fall. Many of you know that I (Amber) came down with a mystery illness beginning in September. After many, many doctors visits and many, many more tests, we came away with a lot of interesting information. For starters, I have all major organs and they all appear to be functioning normally! That may sound kind of strange -- am I the only one who wonders if maybe I'm missing vital organs just because no one has confirmed they're there? I am? Well, okay, I'm a weirdo then. ;o) It was determined that I don't have celiac disease (allergy to gluten) so that was good news since I love me some gluten. The main suspect in all of the digestive and nausea issues was a parasite or a bacteria brought back from Guatemala (which seemed incredibly likely since I accidentally got water in my mouth while on the trip). However, test after test didn't find anything conclusive.

I prodded my internal medicine doctor to maybe take a rabbit trail and check out my gallbladder in the off-chance that my symptoms were not Guatemala-related. He agreed to order me an ultrasound to check for gallstones. While at that appointment, the tech asked if I was experiencing pain on my left side, which was perplexing because I hadn't had any pain at all - just a lot of nausea and digestive problems. After leaving the appointment, I got a call from my doctor within hours saying the ultrasound revealed a large something on my spleen. I was told to be at the radiology department first thing the next morning for a CT scan. Just as a side note, when one is very nauseous, downing two jugs of dye is TORTURE. But with lots of prayers from friends and family (THANK YOU), I managed to get most of the dye down -- enough to get good scans of my spleen. Five minutes of picture taking and an hour of waiting later, I was told that I have a 9cm splenic cyst (the size of a baseball) that they suspected was due to some sort of trauma to that area. However, I have never had a car accident or any sort of accident that caused trauma to that area. But onward we went to continue trying to determine the cause of my symptoms.

The next stop was to the Gastro doctor. After an endoscopy and partial sigmoidoscopy, it was determined that I don't have h. pylori bacteria, no polyps, no acid reflux, nothing at all. So that was also all good news. They decided to run a blood test for a parasite called echinocococcus which is a type of tapeworm that is very rare in the U.S. but one that does cause cysts on organs. Two blood tests returned an "indeterminate" reading, meaning my levels came back in the "not negative but not positive" range. Since the Gastro doctors couldn't find anything that would be causing my symptoms, they referred me to Asheville Infectious Diseases for a second opinion on the echinocococcus parasite.

I finally met with that office toward the end of January (and thankfully was starting to have more "good days" than bad). He said he wanted to run one more blood test for the parasite but that since I was starting to feel somewhat better, he thought my body was working through whatever it was. I gave blood that day but soon thereafter, I started to feel good again. So as far as my symptoms go, it seems I probably came back with a bacteria or something from Guatemala and after four months, my body worked it out on its own. I felt pretty much back to normal through most of February and March. :o)

You can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call on March 18th from the Infectious Disease office telling me the last blood test I did came back positive for echinococcosis. Since I have the large cyst and I had a positive blood result, we started discussing the process of treating the parasite. The treatment regimen would include taking a drug called Albendazole for three months (the purpose to kill the adult parasite the first month, kill any eggs that had hatched the second month, and then any other eggs that hatched the third month). After treating with the drug for three months, the next step would be complete removal of my spleen.

After determining the process for treatment, I was asked to come in and giving a metabolic liver reading (since the medication can cause liver problems) so they would have a baseline reading. I gave them that on April 3rd assuming we'd be starting the drug within a week or two. Imagine our surprise when we got a positive pregnancy test on April 6th! HA! For those of you who know our back story, after losing two pregnancies in the first trimester then trying for two and a half years to get pregnant unsuccessfully, the shock of finally getting a positive in the midst of all of the other medical ongoings was  ... well ... a shock! But a good one! It seemed obvious to us that God had His hands all over this one - and we've been trusting Him along this journey.

I'll update about the pregnancy in my next post.