Update

Well we went to the doctor's Monday morning.
I am sorry I didn't write.
It is not because the poop has hit the fan it was just I didn't have time.
Monday was doctor's appointment, lunch with Grammy, then my son and I went to the Rays vs Red Sox game in Tampa. Long day.
Yesterday was work, write this, run and visit a good friend at the hospital (Just had a new baby).

Oh before I forget, I watched I am Legend this weekend. Very Good. Man were those dudes scary. The dogs were wicked scary.
I finished the Lone Survivor. VERY VERY GOOD book. They are making a movie from this book. Nothing like crying while reading the book and not wanting to put it down. So you just wipe the tears and try to read through the fog.

Okay here is the update...

Not much has changed. The baby still has a Cystic Hygroma but I did pin him down and ask him a bunch of questions.

Let me tell you about our visit....
The doctors office is on the second floor of a medical plaza across the street from the downtown hospital.
We got the first appointment of the morning. This is before the parking lot fills up and the only way to park is to valet. Yes, that is what I said. You have to valet after 9am at a doctors office.
We also got the early morning appointment because he has a tendency to run behind. Hilda's first time going there was at 10am appointment. She waited TWO HOURS for this dude.

Isn't it funny how we allow things from doctors?
I just look at my office and the hell I pay from some of my patients when I am running 12 minutes behind.
After about 10 minutes they start looking around. They start getting antsy. They start asking the front desk a bunch of questions about my status.
I would have ZERO patients if I made them wait this long.

So we get there at 8:15 for the first appointment of the morning (appointment time 8:30).
The reception area, which was actually a room that you had to walk into. The room had a bunch of people in it. Wait a minute... we have the first appointment. I am starting to realize I am not in Kansas anymore.

The nurse comes in and walks through the room whispering a name. Who is she calling? Turns out she was calling our name.
We yell out, "Did you just call Hilda?"

She goes and gets her vitals checked and then comes back.
About 5 minutes later we get called to go get our sonogram.
The tech introduces herself and we began the ultrasound.
This is a 10-15 minute deal when the operator is moving the wand around with her right hand and typing with her left hand.
So for the first 5 minutes she is not saying a word. And if you know me this is unacceptable.
So I pipe up and say, "Can I ask you some questions?" I didn't know if she was the kind of person that needed to have complete silence when she worked.
She said, "Yes".
So I said, "What is going on?"
So she started with, "Here are five toes. Here is his femor. This is the skull."
Okay now there is a HUGE ELEPHANT in the room and everyone is pretending to not see it.
So I said, "Is the Hygroma still there?"
She said, "Yes and it appears to be bigger." Then she proceeded to show us from every perceivable angle.
What, she wasn't going to say anything if I didn't?
I guess people process things differently. And she was waiting to talk until I said it okay to.

She did all the measuring and then said, "Okay, I am going to show the doctor all this and he will be right in.
Then it was just Hilda and I in the room.

I want to go back to last Monday when the hammer came down.
Every day I was asking my wife how she was doing. And she would say "fine".
I knew she was not fine but I didn't know how to make it better.
So during the week we spent a lot of time together.
I was just trying to be there. We didn't do much, we just hung out.
She didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't really answer the phone.

But what we did talk about is what we were praying for.
She said she was praying for us to be part of the 25% (remember the doctor told us that there was a 25% chance that the hygroma will go away and the baby will be fine).
It is weird to ask someone what they are praying for.
I began to tell her my thoughts.
I told her that I am at peace with anything. I can see God looking down and asking Himself who can handle this kind of issue.
It would be us.
We have a great marriage. We have the means to do anything this baby needs. We have great faith. We have the house big enough to handle anything. We have a family that would welcome any baby.
I told my wife I was praying for the strength to handle anything he gives us.
That's it.

So here we were in a room together and we just found out this thing is still on the back of our baby's neck.
And it wasn't that bad.

Then the doctor came in and started to look at the baby with the ultrasound machine.
And again, no talking.
I broke the silence and asked him if I could talk to him while he works.
Then I started in with the questions.
One thing that I found out is that it could be a heart thing. Meaning there could be a heart issue and the fetus is producing a lot of lymph to try to handle this heart issue.
But all the percentages were still the same.
He then asked us if we wanted to do an amniocentesis at 15 weeks.
I asked him how the results of the amnio help him. Will it tell him anything that will help him diagnose anything? He kind of scoffed and said the amnio was to help US.

Then he says, "Do you have any questions?"
DO I HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Do I have questions? Yes, I have questions. Where do I start? Okay lets start with...
What the f!@#$%k am I suppose to do?
There is so much running through your mind and you know you have to doctor in front of you for about 1 minute, so the pressure was on.
Of course, you draw a total blank. Total stage fright.

So we schedule the amnio in 3 weeks. I guess we can narrow it down what the real issue is.
He says we will find out if it is chromosomal problem...if it is a trisomy 13, or a trisomy 18 or if it is Turner's syndrome.(Anyone heard of this?)
But I think this is the only thing the amnio will tell us.

After that I think we just wait.

We are trying to educate ourselves as best we can. We have some people in the biz. We know a neurosurgeon and we are great friends with our pediatrician. We are getting the ultrasound notes faxed to both of them.

Well that is it for now.

Things are okay at the Gammichia house.
I so appreciate all the notes and stuff. I really means a lot to me.
And to all that didn't write but are still praying...thank you.

Friday is the 4th of July. NO BLOG.
I would write one but I know no one would read it until next week anyway.
So we will see each other on Monday.
Have a great weekend.
Go spend lots of money. Spark the economy.
Faithfully,
john