Neonatologist Appointment (Medically, nothing can help our conjoined twins)

Today we had our first appoint with the neonatologist. He was really sweet and did a great job explaining himself to us in terms we could understand. He was especially interested in our case because he is not only a neonatologist, but also a cardiologist. More than that, he found out when his wife was pregnant at 12 weeks that they had twins and one of them had a enlarged head that would be fatal to his child. Abortion was also not a option for them, so they delivered and their one boy lived until he was 9 months, the other twin is still alive to this day. So not only was he a expert in the field that dealt with our situation, but he also understood what we are going through emotionally, and all the hard decision making we have that goes with it.

He and his NICU team (26 in total) have been discussing and looking into our case for the last 5 days or so. Since finding out about our situation there have been 2 more cases of conjoined twins just like ours. One set of conjoined twins was delivered last week but has already died.

He called the top 3 hospitals that deal with cases like ours this week to see if there was anything they could do, but all of them said none of them would do any surgerys based on our babies heart condition and the way they were conjoined since 100% of the surgeries done to help babies like this end up in the babies dying withing 1 to 3 days. He was looking for some kind of ray of hope and was surprised that there wasn't anyone that would even try anything.

• Our twins are Thoracopagus - joined at the chest; share a single heart and have some cardiac connection issues; some organs in the abdominal region may be malformed (about 40 percent of conjoined twins)

After we were done talking with him, my doctor (who is a pernatologist) and the cardiologist came in to make sure we were all on the same page. I'm so thankful for all of these doctors but especially my doctor, it was great to have him in there.

So as it stands, there is nothing that can be done medically to help our babies.

We now pray that the twins would be born breathing (since that is still a concern) and that my (Vanessa's) recovery, from the csection, would be quick so I can spend as much time with the babies as possible. We also pray that God would heal their heart. We pray that God's will be done and that Jesus Christ would be glorified no matter the life span of Melody & Madison.

As you do not know the way the spirit comes
to the bones in the womb of a woman with child,
so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
- Ecclesiastes 11:5