Decision and Operation

The doctor asked, what do you want to do. It all seemed to come so fast. We asked for some time, prayed, met with the doctor again, prayed some more... Then Siska knew for sure that she wanted the surgery. That was confirmation to me, and we were in total agreement. Siska was truly a hero. I was amazed at her courage, and the way she walked through all the pain, both physical and emotional. They prepared the OR and took her into surgery.

During the operation, the goal was to coagulate all of the shared blood vessels in the placenta forcing each baby to rely only on their individual vessels. The probem is really not with the babies, the problem is with the placenta and the sharing of the vessels in the placenta. Essentially, they are now more like fraternal twins in the way they recieve their blood. During the operation, the doctor found a tear in the membrane dividing the two babies. Noah's amniotic fluid had increased so fast that it tore the membrane seperating the two. Some of the amniotic fluid leaked from Noah to Matthew. That is not a serious issue as long as it does not continue to tear and the outer membrane stays intact. During the operation, the doctor also removed 3 liters of amniotic fluid.

That was a difficult 2 hours. Siska came through the surgery well, and the doctor felt it was a success. Both babies still had a hearbeat, and both had not digressed in their bloodflow, but now we had to wait till morning to see how the babies were still responding. Please keep praying...