New Hope?

I wasn't ready to give up.

I was at gymnastics with Abbie and Raleigh one Saturday. I started talking to another mom in Raleigh's class and told her about the baby and our situation. We exchanged numbers to get together sometime.

Just a short while later, I got a message from her. She said she had a good friend who was a nurse in the NICU department at Holmes and wanted to talk to me. I decided it had to be a message from God to place those women in my life during that time.

I called and talked to the nurse. She used to be the head nurse in the NICU at Winnie Palmer in Orlando before moving to Melbourne. She urged me to go see a doctor that she used to work for at Winnie Palmer- Dr. Carlan. She also suggested that even if Matthew's kidneys couldn't be salvaged, we could help his lungs develop by getting amnioinfususions.

You see, a baby's lungs develop in the womb by drinking the amniotic fluid around them. The fluid also gives them room to expand. The kidneys were no longer the big issue. If Matthew didn't have fluid to take in, his lungs would not develop and he would have Pulmonary Hypoplasia- small, underdeveloped lungs which can be fatal. The most important time for lung development was between 18-24 weeks. I was around 22 weeks- already into those important stages.

We decided to give it another shot. I called my regular OB and told them I would like to see Dr. Carlan and to have amnioinfusions considered. The nurse said she would send over my records, but that it would be highly unlikely for me to see Dr. Carlan. He was the head of the department at Winnie Palmer, and she said none of her patients have seen him in over two years. I told her I still wanted to change, I just didn't feel that our current specialist was on our side.