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Multiples
Mono-Di TTTS :(
I am about 21 weeks and yesterday I had My 5th sonogram! this pregnanancy has been nothing but suprices!! which I just got my bad news yesterday! My twins have TTTS 
which by the things i read It brings nothing but tears to my eyes! I just want other women that have had this same situation to help me out a little... Twin A has about 11cm of fluid and twin B has a little less than 2cm of fluid.. they both seem to be about the same size though. not much of a growth difference! My doctor did not put me on bed rest and obviously I am no doctor but arent I suppose to bed rest? Im scared out my mind! Im praying! an crying! I dont know what to do anymore! Ive been having trouble breathing and horrible back pains! tightning of the stomach! Please tell me about your experience with mono-di and/or TTTS
-jess
Jess:)
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Re: Mono-Di TTTS :(
I had it with my di/di twins & much later on. They said it was just too rare but the longer it went on the more the docs realized it was true. When they were born & saw the placentas & cords it was confirmed. I was not on bed rest for the TTTS but for PTL. Our situation was not reaized till 30 weeks. They watched her cord blood supply closely & as soon as her fluid got low & the flow went down they induced.
when they were born Walker was 7lbs 6oz & Emerson was 3lbs 3oz
both spent 17 days in hospital. Pic below is when we came home & she had put on almost a full pound & he had lost one.
I understand. Your situation is so scary so early on. They were 35 1/2 weeks. They treated her more like a 31 weeker at first but she made big strides faster since she was older but just needed some food. His cord was twice the width & size of hers.
At 19 weeks I had an u/s and we realized that along with fluid level discordance, there was also a weight discordance. For me, fluid levels had to be above 8 and below 2 (both had to be out of bounds) for them to intervene. They did an amniotic reduction where they took about 3/4 liter of fluid out of the one sac to relieve the pressure. This helped even out the cord flow and eventually the fluid levels. I had twice weekly u/s from 19 weeks until 32 weeks when we realized the little one wasn't growing and I delivered.
TTTS is very scary. Arm yourself with knowledge. Ask to know what the plan is. How often will you be monitored? What are they looking at when they monitor you? What is a good doppler reading? What is a bad reading? At what point would they do surgery? Where do they refer for the surgery? At what stage TTTS do they consider you at now? How many cases of TTTS have they handled?
My doctor did not believe in bed rest for TTTS. I can verify that activity (or no activity) had zero effect on cord blood flow or fluid levels. I definitely took it easy, but because pre term labor wasn't a factor, I never went on bed rest.
I found out my mono/di twins had TTTS at 16 weeks. They were stage 3 and my baby B had very low fluid levels and almost no bladder. We were rushed from Hawaii to California for emergency laser surgery and it was successful (scary, but it worked) and I had no issues the remainder of the pregnancy. Baby A was 6 lbs 7 oz and Baby B was 5 lbs 11 oz, born at 37 weeks 1 day.
Just to be safe, the doctor that performed my surgery gave me a cerclage as I had a 5 hour flight back to Hawaii) and told me I was on bed rest "as needed".
Ditto what Erinruns says. Please check out and contact the TTTS Foundation - they are a wealth of information, support, and hope. https://www.tttsfoundation.org/. There is also a FB page.
My own personal TTTS experience went like this: Diagnosis stage I at 22 weeks with donor 2cm and recipient 11cm fluid pockets. Dr. contacted specialists but they didn't feel we were candidates for surgery yet. Sent home and taken off work for modified bed rest and increased my protein intake by diet and drinking 2-3 boost/ensures daily. Continued this with weekly u/s showing imrovement in fluid levels until 24 weeks. By then donor twin was having absent and reverse cord flow and measuring 2 weeks behind. Directly admitted to high risk OB for monitoring and management. Surprisingly continued for 4.5 more weeks with donor twin having absent flow. They were delivered at 28 weeks due to reverse flow and IUGR.
Praying for you and your babies!
Peanut Butter and Jelly!
<a href="http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss122/AliceNP/?action=view
I would follow the advise of erinruns and ask a lot of questions to find out exactly what's going on. Also, don't GOOGLE! Just go to the TTTS foundation web site like Mrs. Alice suggested. Do, start drinking the high protein boost shakes 2/3 a day and get 175 grams of protein a day...drink tons of water 128 oz. Are you seeing an MFM?? When do you go back? TTTS can change things around so quickly that its important to get monitored as much as possible.
With our situation, I saw my ob on a wed and my MFM on Friday morning of my 22nd week. During my MFM appointment, my donor twin was stuck without at fluid and the bladder, kidneys, and stomach were not visable on the u/s. The fluid in my recp was 12cm. He recommended that I go to Houston, which was 4 hours away, to meet with one of the few skilled doctors in the country who can do the laser ablation surgery. By the time that I got to the hospital down there at 11pm, they had progressed to a stage III. They did the surgery early the next morning. The doctors saved both of my baby boys, against all of the odds. I was on a modified bed rest after the surgery, probably should have been on strict bed rest though. We made it to 29w when the membrane for my recp ruptured. They couldn't hold off labor any longer at 31w5d when my boys were born. I had small babies...2lbs and 3.2lbs, but they were remarkably healthy!