Rolling Water

Last week turned into a nightmare.

I want to tell this story for two reasons. One, because it will provide background for the next post. Two, because a friend once said, “Crisis plus Time equals Humor.” I’m hoping that someday we can read this and laugh about it.

First, some background. Lecil has been measuring a little larger than she should. It didn’t really seem that big a deal to me (no pun intended), but apparently the doctor was a little concerned. The baby was about two weeks or so bigger than she should be, according to the date of expected delivery. Lecil’s doctor referred us to the pre-natal medicine specialists for further analysis.

So, Lecil went to the hospital on Tuesday the 13th for some routine tests and an ultrasound to see if the pre-natal specialists could determine the cause of the extra fluid in the womb and the baby’s size.

We had two ultrasounds back-to-back–one performed by the technician and one by the specialist. The technician showed us a couple of things about the baby–her profile, hands, feet, etc. She also showed us the baby’s lower abdomen, where she pointed out a pocket of fluid in the baby’s intestines.

During the second ultrasound, the specialist saw what appeared to be a blockage between the baby’s stomach and her small intestine (the duodenum). I asked her specifically about the pocket of fluid in the intestines, and how it could appear in spite of the blockage. She said she didn’t know. She told us, as she showed us the image, that this is often seen in babies with Down’s Syndrome. She also said that Down’s Syndrome is the cause in about 30% of cases of extra amniotic fluid.

We began to be more than a little concerned. If the blockage were indeed present, it would mean surgery shortly after birth for our new little one to correct the problem. But the specialist wasn’t through with us yet. She also said that another common and more serious effect of Down’s Syndrome is heart defects. These also need to be corrected after birth to ensure the baby’s survival. We have been listening to the baby’s heart beat for months now and have not heard anything irregular, but the specialist wanted to hear it for herself.

Lecil was sent to another room where they put a fetal heart monitor along with a contraction monitor on her belly. The heart monitor showed nothing unusual, but the contraction monitor showed several contractions during the time. This was, of course, a red flag to the technicians and the specialist.

Lecil was then sent up to Labor and Delivery, where they measured her cervix and determined that she was dilated to 4 cm. At this point everything dissolved into chaos. They immediately put Lecil on an IV, and informed us that they were calling in a LifeFlight helicopter to take Lecil up to University Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Within about 20 minutes, I was standing on a helipad watching my wife fly away, wondering what was going to happen to her, if she would be alright, and worried about the baby.

I have to say thanks to the kind lady that saw I was distressed and came and put her arm around me. It wouldn’t be the last time I would cry in the company of strangers, but it was the first and it really helped. God bless you, whoever you are.

I got my final Omniture certification test results back yesterday. I am not one of the anomalies. I passed, and can now put Omniture Certified Professional:Implementation on my biz cards and in my email sig.

The news gave my confidence a huge boost. And I needed that–I’m giving my first presentation today.

Yeah. For those who have seen the blog previous to today, you may be wondering at the change. For those visiting the blog for the first time today and afterwards, the name has changed from Rushing Waters to Rolling Waters. See this post for more details.

So, why the change? Well, a few reasons. I have not really been satisfied with the idea conveyed with the word “rushing.” It felt too…rushed, too forceful, and a little bit dangerous. That isn’t what I wanted to convey about myself.

I wanted something more poetic and natural sounding. I ran across exactly what I was looking for in the D&C, section 121 verse 33. The phrase comes from a question posed, “How long can rolling waters remain impure?” which has profound and personal meaning for me.

“Rolling Waters” is much more poetic, much more natural and softer sounding, feels less dangerous and more like the image in the blog header. I would much rather be connected with thoughts of life-giving, nourishing streams than with potentially destructive floods.