Prenatal Intervention

This is a slightly later update than I would have liked, thanks to my trip (more on that later), but I promised I'd keep everyone informed so here we go.

The first thing our doctor at the Maternal and Fetal Medicine Clinic here in Eugene asked me was, "Have you decided if you're going to California?" Needless to say, the question caught me completely off guard. What he really wanted to ask me was whether or not we had decided to opt-in to a prenatal intervention program for our baby.

Prenatal intervention in our case would consist of a procedure where they try and open up our baby's aortic valve with a "balloon" while he is still in the womb. This is obviously very risky for the baby (they would go through the outer wall of his heart to get to the valve), and apparently even for me. The hope of this prenatal procedure is to allow "flow" through the left side of his heart, which would hopefully stimulate the left side of his heart to grow before he is born.

At our appointment with the cardiologist in Portland (after our fetal echo), we asked her opinion on the prenatal intervention procedure. She is not a big fan of prenatal intervention in general because the last baby the sent down there did not make it; it sounds like that is more the norm than exception.

As it turns out, the cardiologist said our baby is not a good candidate for the procedure anyway. The procedure only focuses on one valve and our baby has a constriction in both valves on the left side of his heart. Even if we were to go ahead with the procedure, it is unlikely we would get good "flow" because that second valve would still be constricted.

Needless to say, we've decided against prenatal intervention. Right now, we are making plans for our baby to go through the three open heart surgeries, starting with the Norwood Procedure. After researching transplants, that avenue feels like more of a dead end. We will still have transplant as a backup option if the Norwood procedure doesn't go well. We are very grateful for all the fasting, prayers and time our family and friends put in to help us make this decision. Obviously there is still time to change our opinion if new information arises, but for now we feel this is the best course of action for our baby and our family.