Ours is a story that needs to be told as it is one of hope and of success, and I have realized during this journey that it is not always a certainty that these kinds of stories close with a happy ending.  Ours does, and my wish is that parents who find themselves searching for answers to the millions of questions running through their minds, and who are in desperate need of a sliver of hope, will find it in reading our story.

Tom and I already had two beautiful, completely healthy children – a boy and a girl.  When we decided to try for just one more child, I wondered if we were tempting fate.  When we found out we were pregnant with spontaneous twins we were surprised but so excited.  When we were told that our twins were suffering from TTTS we were devastated, terrified, and felt completely powerless.

At 12 weeks gestation our twins were the exact same size and weight, and had the exact same heart rate.  At 16 weeks gestation, our ob/gyn in Longmont, Colorado, Dr. Brian Nelson, discovered a significant difference in size among the twins, as well as a tremendous amount of fluid in one baby’s amniotic sac.  It was Dr. Nelson who first realized something was not quite right, and had he not moved forward with such urgency, had he not referred us to a specialist in the field of maternal-fetal medicine, I have no doubt that our story would not have the same happy ending.  We are so blessed to have had such thorough, consistent, and carefully managed care with him.

At 16 weeks and 6 days gestation, we had a very detailed and lengthy ultrasound at University Hospital in Aurora, Colorado where we met the brilliant Dr. Virginia Winn.  During our appointment there we learned that our twins were identical, that they were girls, that they were suffering from TTTS, and that the smaller twin was measuring in less than the 10th percentile of growth for their gestational age, while the larger twin was measuring in the 60th percentile.    They had all the telltale signs of TTTS – no visible bladder in our donor twin and a consistently full bladder in our recipient twin, no measurable fluid around the smaller baby and an overabundance of fluid surrounding the larger baby.  There was no mistaking what was going on.

Dr. Winn, who had completed her Residency and Fellowship at the University of CA, San Francisco, was very familiar with TTTs.  She made the diagnosis quickly, and went to work immediately on our behalf to arrange for the fetoscopic laser photocoagulation surgery.  Her recommendation was that, if at all possible, we needed to go to Kirkland, Washington for the procedure.  We had one additional ultrasound at University to measure and hope for ideal fluid levels, and then Tom, myself, and my mom were off to Washington state.  Upon leaving Colorado our twins were in the second stage of TTTS. (We found out later that ironically, we were not supposed to see Dr. Winn that day, but due to scheduling issues, she happened to fill in for our appointment.  She typically does not do much clinical care. Y)

Upon our arrival at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, WA we underwent an extensive ultrasound.  This was exactly one week after our appointment with Dr. Nelson in Colorado.  We had, in three short days since our last ultrasound in Colorado, moved into stage three of the syndrome and our recipient twin’s heart had begun to suffer so severely that she was actually sicker going into surgery than our donor twin, who was so very small. We were told that there was a 90% chance that they could save one twin, and about a 65% chance that both girls would be okay.

The next morning, Tuesday, January 20th, the day President O’Bama was inaugurated, we underwent fetoscopic laser photocoagulation with  Dr. Walker and Dr. Paek performing the surgery.  We met our babies on a television screen where the doctors monitored the laser ablation.   We watched as the surgeons carefully identified each and every blood vessel that crossed over the equator of the placenta, which was transfusing the life-giving amniotic fluid from our donor twin to our recipient twin.  Fortunately, we learned that our donor twin’s portion of the placenta was enough to sustain her growth through the remainder of the pregnancy.  Tom held my hand the entire time.  I prayed, as hard as I have ever prayed – a hundred Hail Mary’s?  Maybe a thousand…

The next morning we were met by the incredible staff that had provided such amazing care for us at our hospital room door and we were wheeled down for the follow-up ultrasound.  I’m sure it was only moments, but it felt like hours, even years passing while we waited to hear the most beautiful and relieving words…”Two heartbeats!”  The entire room cheered and clapped, including the nurses and medical staff that had stayed in the room with us while Dr. Walker observed the scan.  His words to us upon leaving were, “I think you are looking at a completely normal twin pregnancy from this point on – as normal as twin pregnancies can be, anyway.”

And…it was. We monitored them very carefully and followed every order that we were given by our doctors.  Toward the end of the pregnancy our donor twin’s portion of the placenta began to struggle to provide for her growth, but otherwise the rest of the pregnancy went very smoothly for the most part.  Our twins arrived at thirty-six weeks and two days gestation (five days prior to our scheduled c-section date), our donor twin weighing in at      3 lbs. 6 oz. and our recipient twin at 5 lbs. 12 oz.  They were small, but they were perfect.  We named them Zea Rose and Zoe Grace.  These were names we had chosen specifically for their meaning just days before leaving for Washington.  We named our donor twin Zea, which means giver of life.  And our recipient twin we named Zoe, which means life.

Even now, 16 weeks after delivery, when I find myself holding them both in my arms, watching them sleep peacefully in their cribs, or when they smile those toothless smiles, it is hard to believe that they both made it, especially when I think back to what we knew was a very bleak diagnosis.  We are a success story.  How?  Why?  We had amazing medical care.  Brilliant doctors worked diligently to save the lives of these babies.  We moved incredibly quickly after our diagnosis and did exactly what people who had lived through the nightmare of TTTS advised us to do in order to save them.  We owe so much to so many for their help, their observations, their diagnosis, the urgency with which they acted, their skill, their knowledge, their expertise, and their determination.

More than anything though, I must thank the hundreds of people who were praying for us from the first moment we found out it was possible that we could lose both of our twins.  So many people reached out to us, reached out to others and asked their friends and families to also pray for our girls…prayers for steady hands, prayers for hope, prayers for strength, prayers for healing - I truly believe that It was through prayer that our girls were saved.