February 4, 2013

This was the day we met with our new perinatalogist, and we instantly liked her. She seemed confident and assured that this pregnancy would go off without a hitch, despite labeling our situation as “extremely complicated”. She informed us that she had had several conversations with our cardiologist, so that gave us a new level of comfort knowing they are in communication and this will be a “team effort”. We were in the appointment for about an hour, and were discussing other symptoms of pregnancy I had been experiencing, such as swollen feet. I also mentioned the shortness of breath to her. At this point, she suggested that we go get an echocardiogram at the hospital, and the sooner the better. She was concerned my heart was not pumping normally as it should, especially since the symptoms I had described and shown were not typical for being 11 weeks pregnant. So, after leaving her office we walked over the hospital, where I received my second echocardiogram (the first one came back normal in 2008). We felt concerned, but not overly worried about what the results would show.