A Glimmer of Hope

Today February 5^th we went to Dr. Vick's office for another follow up visit.

To be very honest at this point we didn't know what to except… We just keep hoping for a heartbeat and a miracle… Holding on to hope. Holding on to God. Holding on to each other. Praying for God’s plan.

The past couple doctor visits had just started to take so much out of us. They were draining, emotionally draining. They were painful and had become far from fun. We enjoyed seeing our baby and hearing our his heart beat but we just didn't know what was to come, good or bad. 

I put my big girl pants on this Thursday, I was going to see my baby and this was a blessing!

So off to Dr. Vick's office we went. Abel was still in there growing like a healthy little baby, just not peeing. His bladder was still very large, in fact it was larger.  Dr. Vick came in for a minute and about the same time he came in we saw Abel swallow!We actually saw him swallow a couple of times! This is apparently a great big good sign!!!! By Abel swallowing it show that his brain development was good.  Swallowing takes lots of brain function and muscles. This was a big deal in Dr. Vick’s eyes! As big people in the world I feel like we forget all the small mile stones we have to learn and over come to make it, like swallowing or even blowing your nose. We learn these things and they then become like second nature. From what our sonogram could also show it also looked like Abel’s kidneys still had good blood flow.  That meant they were still functioning. This was also another plus. Dr. Vick also believed that the kidneys were still producing urine because the bladder was larger- only way to get more pee in the bladder. Abel could swallow which also means he was trying to learn to breath. He was trying to develop like he needed to.

(The hydrops that had been a major concern earlier on did not seem to be a concern at this point. That being said it was also unclear if because of the size of the bladder we could not see what was behind it.)

I could hear the hope in Dr. Vicks voice as he talked to us. The sonogram wasn't over but Dr. Vick, Brenda (Victor’s mom), Victor and I all watched the monitor as our baby swallowed. Someone asked the question “if this was your daughter Dr. Vick, what would you do?” He replied optimistically “go to Cincinnati.”

Cincinnati is one of the few hospitals in the US that specializes in post urethral valve blockage (AKA keyhole bladder).  After the sonogram we went into the next room for our consult with Dr. Vick. Dr. Vick explained a little more about how big of a deal it was to see Abel swallow. We discussed Cincinnati and decided that it was worth a try. We had nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain.

For the first time we left this doctor’s appointment with more hope than we had come with.