Was Going to Update...But

I routinely do a Google and a Google Scholar search for Potter's Syndrome, bilateral renal agenesis and Potter's sequence to see if there is anything remotely close to a reason as to why my sons died.  In a passing moment I thought it might be nice to update my webpage to make it more of a medical resource gateway for other families facing the Potter's Syndrome diagnosis.  To help them find the same medical information that I sought during each of my pregnancies.

So I hit the internet again yesterday and the internet hit me back - hard.  The links that I have at the bottom of my blog are (so far as I can tell) still some of the best resources available.  Because there are no answers, there is no treatment.  There is only a diagnosis, a second opinion, a decision as to how to proceed with the pregnancy and then there is time which is followed by precious moments which is then followed by a lifetime of clinging to those moments.

I would love to provide that medical information and I promise that when I do someday find something new, I will share it.  I will shout it from the rooftops.  I will never stop searching.  Until then, I realized that the best thing I can do is to talk.  To tell my story just as many others have told theirs.  When I was pregnant with Wyatt over ten years ago stories of Potter's babies on the internet were few and far between.  I felt so alone.   Things couldn't have been much more different when I was pregnant with Eli.  I found many blogs written by people who have been touched by Potter's Syndrome.  I found online support and chat groups that were only about Potter's Syndrome.  After having Wyatt I was lucky enough to have found an online support group which was really comprehensive in the people affected by infant loss that it served.  It was my lifeline for a long time after Wyatt's birth.  It was a safe place full of other people who had experienced so many different kinds of losses and were able to share those experiences and appreciate their differences and similarities.  But I missed having that intimate knowledge that comes with carrying a Potter's baby to term and then saying goodbye.  It was harder to find that connection in a sea of grief.

So here is my story.  It is as much for me as it is for you.  It is a story of hope, love, loss, grief and living.  It is not an answer or a guide, it is really just my way of making sense of the senseless.