Hello All,
I found out that I was pregnant on December 10th and that I was about 12 weeks along at that point. My A1C was at a 8.9% and I was on NuvaRing birth control at the time. Despite the protection, I became pregnant and when we learned the news, my fiancee and I were shocked but filled with JOY.
The happiness came with fear, and I immediately informed my doctors and made appointments of which I have had six in eleven days. My doctors tried to reassure me with scans, blood tests and statistics that it was more than likely that I would have a very healthy pregnancy. I had three sonograms that all had great results— everything looked good. My CDE pointed to a wall covered with photos of beautiful, healthy babies and said, "You see all those babies up there? A lot of those babies were conceived by women with high A1C's and are just fine. I don't want you to worry".
Yesterday morning I was surprised to see on the monitor that we could even identify the sex of the baby already— a boy. I arrived at yesterday morning's appointment feeling scared and vulnerable, and left feeling safe, empowered and reassured that my baby and pregnancy were SAFE. We were sent home with our third set of ultrasound photos of our new little boy and we cried with joy.
Additionally, we decided to do a CVS diagnostic yesterday to get early information about problems such as Downs and Spina Bifida. I was all smiles when I went in for this procedure, and they laid me down on the table and set up the sonogram for the fourth time. The doctor came in and completed the procedure, which seemed to go just fine.
As it turns out, they were not fine at all.
When he was done, he lowered his gaze and explained to my boyfriend and I that they had found some abnormalities in the fetus while doing the ultrasound.
Where the ultrasound this morning was showing nothing of concern, this new one showed evidence of a stomach that had developed on the right (wrong) side of the baby's body; I believe this is called Heterotaxy. There were also concerns about the heart and what looked like Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, as well as the fact that the umbilical cord only had one artery flowing through it instead of two, called "Single Umbilical Artery", or SUA for short..
He explained to me that this combination of problems was very serious, and reccommended that we wait two weeks to do another ultrasound when the baby is larger and more can be seen.
At that point we may need to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy, and it appears, at least at this point, that an abortion will be necessary the first week in January due to these horrible discoveries.
We are crushed, absolutely heartbroken. We had so much hope and now it is gone. I know to be grateful, I know there is hope, but the feelings I am having overwhelm any level of hope or gratitude now.
I am furious that this disease has destroyed my life for nearly 23 years, and that now it very well might take another life from me, from us. I feel like a failure as a diabetic and mother.
I feel unlucky…
The fact that I became pregnant on steady birth control is a huge statistical chance in the first place, and then you add all of these potential complications—(and yes, these are the types of complications you get with a surprise pregnancy on less than ideal— "but it will be fine!!!" Type 1 Diabetes) it is MINDBLOWING that I am so unlucky. Not to mention the T1D itself— not even in my family, so statistically quite unlikely— and unlucky.
Now it is likely that we will spend the holidays not celebrating with family, but recovering from a medically necessary abortion and a broken heart.
We are not religious people, and our sense of morality in this situation comes from a place of concern for the level of quality of life for this little boy.
If what the doctor says is true, he may not even make it a few days out of the womb. He would probably need several heart surgeries during his short life, as babies and children typically do not handle this well.
We are devastated.
If you have any information that can help, please send it to me…
Specifically—
If the Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is suspected on an ultrasound, is that a pretty reliable diagnosis? If so, is there ANY POINT in waiting the two weeks, or is this kiddo's heart just too broken? I understand that this does not fix itself.
The stomach issue seems like something we can deal with, but has anyone seen this in combination with the HLHS and/or the SUA? What was your experience? I understand that there are varying degrees of this complication, and that it can also mean that other organs are reversed, "wired" incorrectly, and/or missing completely.
Thank you for any help or advice you can give. I would like to respectfully request that we keep our religious beliefs out of this conversation as they will not be part of my decision making process at this point.
If this doesn't work out, we would like to begin trying to conceive again as soon as possible; I have more than a month and a half of awesome blood sugars under my belt now and I hope that we can keep this trend going and have a healthy baby the second time around if that is what happens. Any advice on this would also be helpful.
Thank You