Welcome to the Terrordome

Week 20 anatomy scan. It's a concise way of saying "the ultrasound where you get a good look at your 5 month old fetus". Or, in our case, the day you realize that having babies can be utterly terrifying. Two very unexpected things were discovered in our scan two days ago.

 1) we are having IDENTICAL BOYS. We had been told in our first ultrasound that they each had their own placenta and were, therefore, most likely fraternal. Now, we know that they share a placenta - a situation that brings its own set of potential complications - and that they are identical. More importantly, they are both boys. Man, are we screwed.

2) one of the twins has a very serious developmental problem- cysts in a lung. There are a lot of things that can go wrong here, especially because right next to the sick fetus is a perfectly healthy one whose outcome might be compromised should the sick one get sicker. Primarily, the concern is that the cyst will get bigger and push on the heart until it can no longer beat. In the one of several worst case scenarios, they will operate to remove the tissue in utero.  That's right-- inside of me. Again, the fact that the two babes share a placenta makes this extremely complicated.

We are being referred to Children's Hospital here in Philadelphia for a battery of tests and meetings with every possible kind of fetal, neonatal, and pediatric specialist. It is, so we have come to understand, the best facility in the country to treat this rare disease. In just about every instance where there has been a probability quoted, like 1 in 250 (the chances of having identical twins) or 1 in 30,000 (the likelihood of this cyst problem), we have been that one. The only lucky improbability is that we happen to live in the city in which the best possible place to get treatment is located.  We are, much thanks to good insurance, about to enter the world of ultra-modern (and ultra-expensive) medicine. 

I started this blog to talk about some of the realities of having twins, minus the delicate sugar coating with which so many books and websites patina the subject. So, here you go. Welcome to the Terrordome.