Becca's Story Part 1: The Light in the Darkness, Only to Turn Dark Again
It was March 2020 and In the thick of COVID-19. My husband is a firefighter and first responder. With his call volume for civil on the rise, we made the decision that myself and our 2-year-old daughter would go live with my parents until we knew more about this sickness spreading like crazy.
We went to live with my parents on a Sunday following Saturday I discretely took two pregnancy tests both confirming that I indeed was pregnant!! I immediately face-timed Joe and showed him the tests. Not the most ideal way to tell your husband or to find out you were pregnant. I called Monday morning with my obsession to schedule a virtual appointment. We then set up my 8-week appointment to confirm.
In late April I met Joe at the doctor's office not seeing him in person since we had moved in with My parents. I broke down crying excitedly to see him yet was terrified for this appointment. Deep down in my heart, I knew something was different with this pregnancy. All was well with the 8week and 12-week appointments next were the exciting 19-week Anatomy scan!!
My parents had kept Audrie overnight and Joe and I had a nice evening talking about baby names if the baby was a boy or girl! For this appointment, both my high-risk doctor and my regular OBGYN were in the office. So the ultrasound tech started the scan everything was looking great and was going well, she confirmed with us that we wanted to know the sex of the baby and told us that we were having a baby boy!!
We were so excited and immediately shouted out baby JR!! She then said she needed to go back to take some more images of his heart because he was moving around too much which he was, he was very active. She then said she was done and needed to send the images to doctors in Madison to go over the images since none of my doctors were in the office.
10 minutes later in walked the ultrasound technician and a nurse with a little cell phone. She said the Doctor from Madison is going to talk with you about your scans today. Next, all I remember hearing is the general anatomy of your baby is great, but we do have concerns about his heart.....
My words were "wait what do you mean something wrong with his heart??"
The rest I blocked out. My gut feeling from the beginning was right something was different with this pregnancy. We left that appointment knowing absolutely nothing besides the fact that we were having a boy and something was wrong with his heart. We had to wait until Monday to get any answers.
We went back on Monday and saw my high-risk doctor, he told us JR had Hypoplastic right heart syndrome and that it would be malpractice of him to not say that we can terminate the pregnancy!
(listen hear asshole that is not an option!!)
He immediately referred us to the Herma Heart clinic at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Joe and I could not wait to get out of there and never see him again. That Thursday we had our first appointment at the Herma Heart Institute for an Echo and met Dr. Saudek. Herma Heart brought us a whole new outlook for JR!
The tech who did our fetal echo was amazing trying to keep us positive the whole time. I remember laying on the bed eyes closed praying so hard that the idiot doctor was wrong. After that, we then met Dr. Saudek. He was absolutely amazing! He had the information right in front of us with pictures about Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome. JR also had Tricuspid Atresia. We learned that after Birth JR would be needing 3 surgeries to "fix" his heart.
Dr. Saudek also stated that he was unable to check these coronary arteries bc they are too small when in the womb. (JR's heart was the size of your thumbnail) But after Birth, a Cath would be performed to verify that both coronary arteries were ok. If not there was a chance for a Heart Transplant to be needed. After a week filled with information, we then told everyone about JR's diagnosis and had the absolute best support system we could ever imagine!!
Starting 2023 I will continue my Adopt a heart mom blogs. However, to cover the costs of my platform it will be a $20 Donation. That is for all 4 blog posts. A very small fee to tell your story and to allow me to continue to help others tell their stories!
Everyone with 2022 sign-ups is grandfathered in at zero cost but donations are always appreciated! Thank you heart families for making this blog possible, and allowing us all to continue to spread awareness for congenital heart disease.
Also, we will continue to do our Christmas packages for our heart families in the cardiac units. If you are enjoying my blogs please consider donating on my main page to continue making this possible for these families! Or follow this link to DONATE.
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