Continued.........
A lady from the Royal Womens asked, "How are you?"
"Surviving", I replied
"I don't mean to worry you but we need you to come in for counseling today and bring your labour bag just in case".
I found out later that "just in case" was the hospitals' euphemistic way of preparing a patient for admission without adding to their distress.
The genetics doctor explained the tumour was caused by a "genetic coding error" whereby the differentiated stem cells that create an embryo, fail to degenerate once they have formed the embryo and keep growing in a clump attached to the baby.
The surgeon from the world-class Royal Children's hospital agreed to brief us about our unborn baby's imminent birth and surgery. He mentioned how unfortunate it was that the babys' teratoma was not diagnosed before 25 weeks, so we could have "assessed all our options". By this I realised he meant a termination and was relieved I didn't have to make such a decision.
He also warned of the possibility of a hemorrhage as the tumour was highly vascular. He would still try and do his very best. It was nice of him to drop into the women's hospital after work, when he worked at the children's hospital. He did this just to introduce himself and explain the operation.
After being admitted to the hospital that night, I underwent a plethora of medical tests to ensure the baby's heart was still beating. It was still beating but it was enlarged because it needed to pump blood through the teratoma as well as the rest of its' body.
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