Hi! I’m Megan. I live in Vernon, British Columbia with my wonderful husband and two beautiful sons. I am a Medical Laboratory Technologist at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital, and my husband, Brian, is an Elementary School teacher. Brian and I have been together for more than a decade and have gone through many challenges together.

Our journey into parenthood has been a bit of a challenging one. When I became pregnant with our oldest son, Mason, I was so excited to become a mother! When I started bleeding before my first ultrasound, my heart sank. My first ultrasound was done a bit early and thankfully the heartbeat was strong, but I was still warned I may be miscarrying. Thankfully this did not happen. I was called into my doctors office a few weeks later to discuss my blood work results. I tested positive for a neural tube defect, and again my heart sank. My doctor told me the next steps of going to Women’s and Children’s Hospital for a detailed ultrasound followed by a consult with a geneticist, and that we should prepare ourselves for some decisions as it’s possible our baby may not have a brain. The next few weeks were the longest weeks of our lives waiting for our appointment down at Women’s and Children’s. When the day came and the ultrasound was finished, we sat in a room with a geneticist to discuss the results. Again, thankfully, our baby not only had a brain but did not have a neural tube defect at all. It was a false positive. There was concern of possibly having a two vessel umbilical cord and a placenta that wasn’t functioning well which labelled my pregnancy as high risk and was watched closely until birth by scheduled c-section. When our son was born, we discovered he had a positional clubfoot but he was doing well! Things took a quick turn within a few days. Mason was taken to the nursery for having issues with feeding which led to discussions of flying us to BC Children’s Hospital. Our first few days in the NICU at Children’s Hospital were fairly stable. They knew Mason’s heart was enlarged and his lungs had fluid in them but he was stable so they waited to see if the fluid would clear. When it didn't, this led to a misdiagnosis of alveolar capillary dysplasia. For almost two weeks, this was the diagnosis we were given and were led to believe that Mason would not survive. When Mason started declining and was no longer stable, Brian and I signed for a PICC line to be placed for Mason to receive heart medication. This ultimately led to the finding of the misdiagnosis and we were given a new diagnosis. Mason had a dilated cardiomyopathy. Once the PICC line was placed and Mason was receiving proper medication, everything changed and Mason was now going to survive! After a year of heart medication, Mason’s heart has fully recovered. His clubfoot received casting and treatment with an ADM brace and has also been fully corrected. Mason has developmental delays in his expressive speech and low muscle tone and receives therapy through NONA for both.

After our lives became stable again, Brian and I wanted to have another child and for Mason to have a sibling. When I became pregnant with our youngest son, Dylan, I decided I did not want to do the genetic blood test as I had already had a false positive with Mason and it caused a very stressful pregnancy. Because of Mason’s heart, I was already starting with a high risk pregnancy label and would have my 20 week ultrasound down at Women’s and Children’s hospital. When that day came, we found out our baby only developed one kidney and likely had a posterior urethral valve which was causing damage to his developed kidney and blocking urine from escaping his bladder. Again, we were told our baby likely would not survive. Our next ultrasound was scheduled 4 weeks from then to check on how things were progressing. A paediatric nephrologist was brought onto the case, who thankfully told us he did not feel our baby would have any issues surviving, just might have kidney issues once born, but there were interventions that could be taken. The pregnancy was followed closely through ultrasound to make sure there was amniotic fluid present and delivery was scheduled for a c-section at Women’s Hospital with a NICU team present. My last ultrasound was the week before our scheduled c-section to check on my fluid levels. I was admitted after this ultrasound as there was no amniotic fluid left and we were told there would be an emergency c-section in the next 24 hours. Baby was coming as soon as a NICU team could be ready. The next morning, Dylan was born and did have some challenges with his lungs initially, but recovered quickly. The posterior urethral valve were removed once Dylan was stable. After a big discussion with the nephrology team, a g-tube was placed before discharge so that we wouldn’t have issues with feeding or giving medications as Dylan had chronic kidney disease. Dylan’s first year has been quite a challenge with a lot of hospital admissions including being flown to BC Children’s Hospital. Dylan is now on peritoneal dialysis every night and waiting for a kidney transplant, which requires him to be a certain weight in order to receive.