Phase 1 - Get Karsie to delivery
Phase 2 - Deliver Karsie
Phase 3 - Fix Karsie's birth defect - While this phase is the longest of all the phases, it's a lot more normal than the other phases and, dare I say, less stressful. Our job is to grow her and keep her healthy so the doctors can do their job. We have a slew of appointments before any procedures are done, but here is the basic plan at this point. We are well aware that plans at this point can change based on Karsie.
In April we will see the plastic surgeon. She will look Karsie over and assess her growth and ability to handle surgery. She may or may not schedule a surgery, but if she does we're pretty sure it won't be until Karsie's at least a year old. The plan is to put in tissue expanders to stretch out Karsie's muscles and abdominal cavity. This is a very basic surgery and isn't as stressful as the next, but it's still surgery. She will have little water balloon-like pockets in her body that we will have to fill full of saline every now and then to expand her body.
After her muscles and cavity have expanded to the point Dr. Saenz is comfortable, Karsie will go in for a closure surgery. This, most likely, will close the case on the omphalocele and will be the final procedure for Karsie. The hope is that the tissue expanders grow Karsie's body to the point she can fit her muscles around the organs. That will push the organs into place and she'll be done. The earliest we can even fathom this happening is around this time next year. However, it's probably more likely that it will be more in the 2-3 year range. But we'll find out more as she grows.
For now the blog will serve as a "Life with the Turners" with intermittent information on appointments and procedures thrown in here and there. Karsie is real close to laughing, so we hope to capture that soon. Those types of things will hopefully be the direction of our blog for a while. Time to breath.....
