Progress I

When we first discovered that we were having twins, knowing nothing of the problems that were ahead, we wondered how we would take care of two. And the word that kept coming to mind was "Manna". A weird, flaky, unstorable, food product that you can not grow but can only be given by God on a day by day basis.

When we left Wisconsin 3 days ago Megan was disappointed that we couldn't bring home the flowers that were sent to us from Santa Barbara. It was clear to me though, that the trip home would not be easy, with my post operative wife who had sat up and stood up a total of about 7 times in 5 days. Her in a wheel chair and me with 2 rolling bags and a carry on. I just couldn't see where we would put the flowers without ending up with a crumpled, wilted, loves me not looking mess by the time we got home. We made other plans. One bouquet I took to the nurses stand and told them they could give it to someone who was having a hard day. The other, a dozen Gerber daisies, Megan left in our room with a note. We knew that a couple was coming from Ohio the next day, who's twins have TTTS and would be undergoing the same surgery and recovering in the same room. The note was simple. It said that we were very happy with the Dr, the staff and that they were now in the right place to be taken care of.

We were surprised when Dr De Lia called yesterday and told us that some of our nurses had found our note and were moved to tears. He said that it helped put the couple at ease as they adjusted to their new surroundings, and the surgery that lay ahead. The ever-balancing scales of fear and hope were pretty heavily tilted toward fear when we arrived there a week earlier. We imagine it was the same for them.

Megan was lying on the 'doggy-bed', pieces of our vw van's bed laid out on our dining room floor and arranged near the computer and telephone to allow her to make a nominal effort at productivity while lying down, when a 2 foot long Fed-Ex flower package arrived. Less than 48 hours since we left our hospital room the blue vase that we brought home with us is again filled with a dozen Gerber daisies. And our scales have certainly tipped in the other direction.

Our appointment with Dr Soffici (our local perinatologist) yesterday was all good news. The babies are still the same % discordance, but are both growing. Our donor's bladder is visible, and there is already some measurable fluid in his amniotic sac. It also looks like the little guy is moving more. All great news which we hope will continue over the next weeks, as Megan remains on bed rest and geriatric supplement drinks and goes out only for our weekly ultra sound with Dr. Soffici.

We keep feeling that we are receiving far more than we have ever given. I suppose there is no way to measure that, but we are getting a concentrated dose of care and attention, groceries, cleaning, moving, transporting, calls, e-mails, casseroles and flowers. Manna.