Long week

Not for me, necessarily, but definitely for some of my relatives. I have a cousin who is 28 (I think) and is now seventeen weeks pregnant with her first child. She's always had some medical problems, but nothing life-threatening, mostly digestive issues and stomach problems. A long, long time ago, when she was a kid, she had a minor heart murmur but nothing that kept her from being an outstanding athlete in high school, so for the most part nobody thought anything about it when she told us she was going to have a baby.

Now though, we remember that when she was a baby she had a small hole in her heart. Back then they didn't do anything about it and it healed on its own, but now that she's pregnant it has apparently returned, and it's a very scary time for everyone, especially her and her husband. The hole is 1 cm across, so it's too large to leave alone, but it explains why she's been so short of breath lately.

My aunt (her mother) just called, and at least right now they're not going to terminate the pregnancy, but supposedly they're going to do a cardiac cath at Ohio State University to I think either repair it, or at the least further diagnose the problem. She didn't say when, but considering the number of doctors she's seen in the past few days, I can't imagine they're going to wait more than a few days.

At least her cardiologist has a doctor in her practice that specializes in treating pregnant women. That was another big worry initially, because the cardiologist she's been seeing wanted to do a cardiac cath using ionizing radiation, even though she was pregnant. That had a lot of us really concerned, especially at this point in her pregnancy because of the damage it would do to the fetus. But it looks like radiation isn't going to be used, so even though it's a risky procedure on a pregnant woman, it's at least not going to be unduly dangerous to the fetus.

Going to be a nervous week for everyone next week, I think.