Twins Magazine
My Journey from Darkness to Light
Crystal Olguin Duffy
I
stared at the pregnancy test, willing the lines to appear. Then faint blue,
beautiful double blue.
“Oh,
my gosh! There are TWO blue lines! I’m pregnant!” I think I might have been
levitating off the bathroom tiles.
“Wow!
That’s amazing.” Ed’s focus shifted from the blue lines to my face, beaming and
melting. We squeezed each other while tears of elation streamed down my
cheeks.
We
had just returned from Paris, the city of love—my husband had planned the
surprise trip and even arranged child care for our 18-month-old daughter
Abigail. It was over a bottle of
champagne at a French bistro that we had decided to start trying for another
baby. It was the trip of a lifetime, at
times, if felt like I was living a movie script. A few weeks later we realized that we had
returned home with a little Parisian souvenir.
We were thrilled that our little girl Abigail was going to be a big
sister!
At
the seven-week mark however, I began experiencing throbbing and painful cramps
accompanied by strong pelvic pressure and heavy bleeding. Oh no, I’m having a miscarriage I
thought. Preparing for the worst, I immediately
contacted my OB/GYN. I remember my
doctor performing the ultrasound and then looking at me and asked, “Was this a
spontaneous pregnancy?” What the heck is
a spontaneous pregnancy? Is that like
the Immaculate Conception? I was so confused and then he pointed to the
monitor and said, “Look Crystal—there are two heartbeats, two amniotic sacs—you
are having twins!” We had tried for Duffy baby #2 and instead got babies #2 and
#3! My husband and I were ecstatic, we
felt so lucky to be given this special gift of twins.
The
ultrasound unfortunately also revealed a blood clot in my uterus, which was the
cause of the cramping, bleeding and discomfort.
I was then placed on bedrest for a month with the hopes that with good
nutrition and rest—the blood clot would reabsorb the itself—which was exactly
what happened.
“I
want them to be mine.” I kept saying
over and over again. I was so terrified
of losing these babies; I can not describe how grateful we were when we were in
the clear. I thought our prayers had
been answered and I could finally enjoy and relax the rest of the
pregnancy.
At
around twelve weeks, we received the joyous news that we would be having
identical twin girls. Pink, pink, pink
everywhere! I asked my husband once
shortly after we found out we were having more girls, that he and our Yorkie
pup Charlie would be desperately outnumbered—“Are you okay with us not having a
son?” He turned and kissed me and said,
why do I need a boy? Our daughter Abby
envelops anything I could have ever imagined my child to be—she loves me, and
shares so many of my interests—soccer, Star Wars, cinnamon toast crunch. Girls can do anything boys can do, and I’m
honored that I get to raise her and our twin daughters and instill that
confidence and belief in them.” My
heart melted and I fell in love with him all over again.
Overwhelmed
with happiness, I began the nesting process—this time double time. I was working to prepare for what would soon
be a very full and busy household.
Between shopping for three matching girly outfits, building a custom
closet for the nursery and finishing up home-improvement projects, I was at the
peak of healthy, energetic, and excitement.
We even snuck in a family trip to SeaWorld for spring break to chase
after out toddler at the splash pad.
But
at 22 weeks, my physician found something concerning—during a routine
ultrasound—it revealed that there was an abnormal amount of fluid around one of
the twins. I began to panic, I knew my
babies were in danger, especially after I saw how seriously my physicians took
the news.
Twin to Twin Transfusion
Syndrome
After
targeted tests were performed, I was diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion
syndrome (TTTS), a serious condition that affects 10 to 15 % of identical twins
who share a placenta. TTTS occurs when
the blood vessel connections between the two babies produce an imbalance, or
uneven sharing of the blood. In these
cases, the blood from one twin, (the donor) is pumped into the other twin (the
recipient), requiring the heart of the donor to do extra work to support the
recipient twin and the recipient twin in turn receives too much blood while the
donor twin does not get enough. This
unequal distribution of blood can lead to severe issues for both babies, and in
cases were it is left untreated yields a 95% rate of mortality in the
babies.
I
was terrified once again of losing our precious babies and overwhelmed by
everything. I couldn’t wrap my mind
around the tragedy of TTTS when there were two babies in my womb that had been
healthy, without genetic defects, who suffered consequences because they shared
a placenta. It was heartbreaking
situation to be in. My obstetrician
immediately referred us to a maternal-fetal specialist, who specializes in
high-risk pregnancies. Because our
condition had already advanced to stage III TTTS (Four stages total), our MFM
determined that the best treatment for us was to undergo laser ablation
surgery.
Laser
ablation surgery aims to interrupt the blood flow in the vessels that connect
the twins through the insertion of a small telescope and a laser device into
the uterus. Once the abnormally
connected vessels are identified, the surgeon uses the laser to coagulate or
seal the vessels. Laser ablation surgery
is recommended to the more advance stages of TTTS and can only be performed
between weeks 16 and 26 of gestation. I
was so grateful that we were diagnosed in that window of time where there was a
chance for our girls to survives.
Additionally, there are a handful of doctors in the US that perform this
dangerous in-utero surgery, I was blessed enough to live 20 minutes away from
one of the best MFMs in the country.
Our
surgery was scheduled quickly, a day after our consultation, two days after the
diagnosis. In total, the surgical team
lasered 11 blood vessels and drained an excess of two liters of amniotic fluid
from the recipient twin’s sac.
After
surgery, I was placed on strict bed rest at home to recover. Later that week, we learned that despite the
surgery’s success, there was a further complication—specifically a hole,
septostomy, in the membrane separating the twins. Although the hole was initially small, one of
the girls apparently tore at it, making it large enough to swim through, and
joined her sister, so that they were tumbling around each other. As a result, I was now carrying Mono-Mono
twins, meaning my girls were in the same amniotic sac. This rare condition carries with it its own
host of complications, including umbilical cord entanglement and compression. For my sake and the twin’s health—my OB
admitted me into the hospital for bed rest and strict monitoring, where I would
stay for the remainder of my pregnancy until the twins were delivered.
I
loaded up on magazines, movies, snacks, pictures of my family and my daughter
Abigail, a countdown calendar—even a lamp to make my room feel more like
home. I had no idea how long I was going
to be there—I arranged for visitors, friends, family to come visit me in the
hospital every day. We had a barbeque,
baby shower and even a surprise anniversary dinner during my stay at the hospital. I also attended an antepartum support group
every week were I met other moms going through my same situation. It was in this group were I also met a
musical therapist who worked with me and helped me find a creative outlet to
express and deal with everything I was going through. One of the hardest things I found, was being
away from Abigail for so long, so with my therapists help I wrote and recorded
a song about that called Together Again. It was so special to me because not
only did it help me pass the time, but it was also therapeutic in helping me
process the stress, anxiety, and loneliness of going through my last month of
pregnancy at the hospital.
Our dramatic delivery
On
the evening of June 18, 2014, I felt sick and alerted my nurse that something
felt off. By the next morning, I was
having full-blown contractions. They put
me on magnesium to try and stop the labor.
But when my OB came to check on me he saw that I had dilated more and
said the words that will forever ring in my head. “It’s time—after a month of hospital
bedrest—we are having some babies today.”
I
went into C-section surgery unalarmed, excited to soon be meeting these little
survivor babies of mine. As my OB would
later describe, as soon as they started the surgery they knew something was
wrong—I was bleeding heavily. I had had
a placenta abruption—a rare and dangerous occurrence in which the placenta
detaches itself from the inner wall of the uterus. Completely unrelated to my surgery, or the
TTTS, it was so unbelievably lucky that I had been in the hospital for
observation and continuous monitoring.
Additionally, placenta abruption is one of the primary causes of
maternal mortality. I remember being in
the OR and could sense that something was wrong. Ed, my husband, was asked to leave and I
heard one of the nurse say something about a blood transfusion. Never, not once through all of this did I
think for a second about my own life being in danger. I had remained positive and strong in my
faith through it all. One of the best
memories was hearing the babies scream for the first time—their lungs were sure
strong and healthy. A team of clinicians
stood by, ready to transport the girls to the NICU for care.
Katherine
Maria and Lauren Elizabeth each weighed 3 pounds when they were born. They spent 38 says in the NICU at Children’s
Memorial Herman in Houston, Texas. They
are healthy, happy and rambunctious little toddlers.
As
I think back on all of it I still can’t believe what had to happen for us to
all be here together. Despite all our
complications—my twin daughters and I are healthy, happy, and extremely blessed
to have one another. It took not just
one but a series of miracles to us to emerge healthy—we are walking
miracles.