22.5 week update

I know I have talked to some of you but I just wanted to give everyone an update on the babies. We went to Cardinal Glennon in St. Louis this week and initially had an echocardiogram, MRI, and more detailed ultrasound imaging. We met with the high risk obstetrician, pediatric surgeon, and neonatologist to go over the findings. Good news...at this point, both babies are healthy with good heart and brain function as well as overall development. But Baby A does have a rather large (approximately 5 cm) mass on his/her neck...they couldn't be 100% for sure, but most likely this mass is a cervical teratoma and it has grown to the size it is in four weeks or less. So, the risk of this is that the tumor will continue to grow as it has and obstruct either the esophagus or trachea. It is being supplied by the carotid artery, which is one of the main arteries up to the brain.

So...where do we go from here....the information we got from these surgeons and specialists was to pretty much watch and wait. Watch to see what the mass does and wait for the babies to mature as much as possible (the ideal time would be 36 weeks and we are 22 1/2 weeks right now) because Baby A will need to have this mass removed after delivery and needs to be as strong as possible. I just wanted to tell everyone thank you for the prayers and I guess my first prayer is for a miracle, to prove medical science wrong and for the mass to stop growing or even regress in size. My second prayer is for me to be able to keep these little ones in my tummy as long as possible to give Baby A the best chance at survival after delivery and the most likely eminent surgery.

We will be following up weekly at this point to keep an eye on the mass and the baby's swallow and lung function. Please continue to pray and I will do my best to keep everyone updated.

Love you all!!

~Liz