Yesterday was another challenging day full of google searches and panicked article readings. I had made a decision the night before to learn more about the hypoplastic umbilical artery that I seem to have but no one really spoke to me about. It was my turn to drive in, which was fine, but that meant that I had to focus on the road and little else. By the time I had stepped into the office and sat down at my desk, I could hardly wait a few minutes before typing in ‘Single Umbilical Artery’ into the search field. Huge mistake.
There was hardly any real information on the syndrome, and what was there was not very positive. With each link I became more panicked which propelled me to read more. Vicious cycle, Google is. You see one thing, and then want to see if it matches up against the page you read a few pages back. The search for information is disguised as a search for hope, when it indeed becomes hopeless as you realize that nothing came out of this other than feeling worse.
Hence, I logged into my patient portal and cried out to the voice of reason- the doctor. Should I be worried about this? I received a call during a training I was wrangled into which went straight to voicemail. She called me back, saying that she received my message and “I hope to help you feel better.” When I finally did catch up with her, I was reassured that no, this was not something I need to worry about, but it is something they are going to keep an eye on. Stay off the internet, if I have questions, contact her directly. Oh- and yes, you will most definitely have a C-section scheduled at 39 weeks.
Ok, although I did feel better about the cord thing, that last peice of info was a bit of a blow. I had hoped for a natural delivery, but because she will need surgery so quickly, the baby will need to have a more planned out delivery. Which also means I will be in recovery for 4 days, and not with her. Very hard to deal with but at least for now I can make the effort to stay in the moment and know that for now- she is fine and happy where she is. I feel her moving around, little pressure points here and there and take comfort from that. This has got to be the scariest situation I have ever had to deal with in my life and I am finding the biggest challenge is keeping my emotions away from a state of panic. Dr. Kolbas’s phone call was huge, and gave me peace of mind in a few minutes as oppose to the 30-45 minutes of Google hell. Lesson learned.
hopeinaheartshape 