Thank God for Stethoscopes and Drs who know how to use ‘em
Laurel Lynn Grace was born on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 5:07 AM. The birth was absolutely beautiful! Later that day, our Pediatrician came in to the hospital to assess the health of our new little baby girl. His report was...”she looks great! She has just a little bit of a heart murmur, which is normal for a brand new baby, but I will check it tomorrow to make sure there is nothing we need to look at further.” On Sunday, the murmur was still present and in fact a little “louder” than it had been on Saturday. The Doc thought we should have a Cardiologist at least check it out.
The Cardiologist arrived at around 3:30 and after a 15 min ultrasound of Laurel’s heart, we were made aware that our sweet little Laurel Lynn Grace has a congenital heart defect that is referred to as Tetralogy of Fallot. If you are interested, there is quite a bit of information about this condition online. One concise and clear description is given at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002534/ and another at http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/TetralogyOfFallot.html
The word Tetralogy refers to the four (tetra) defects that make up this particular heart condition. Fallot is the last name of the French physician who first discovered that in many cases these four particular defects seem to be present together.
The classic form of Tetralogy of Fallot includes four defects of the heart and its major blood vessels:
Ventricular septal defect (hole between the right and left ventricles)
Narrowing of the pulmonary outflow tract (the valve and artery that connect the heart with the lungs)
Overriding aorta (the artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the body) that is shifted over the right ventricle and ventricular septal defect, instead of coming out only from the left ventricle
Thickened wall of the right ventricle (right ventricular hypertrophy)
The Cardiologist’s first words to us when we sat down together were, “She is going to be ok!” GOOD NEWS! He then explained Tetralogy of Fallot to us in great detail and gave us a few specifics about Laurel’s case. He went on to inform us that this problem would have to be fixed in order for Laurel to survive past her teenage years. He added that, of course, the only way to fix her heart was to “open it up.”
So...here we are. Waiting. We meet with the Cardiologist again on Wednesday, January 23rd to further discuss the plan of action. At that point, we will have a clearer picture of what is to come. We are told that this type of surgery is usually performed between 3 and 6 months of age. Apparently, it could be done today, but it is best to give our baby girl some time to grow up a bit in order to shorten the length of post surgery recovery time.
If you were to hold this sweet little ball of cuteness in your arms, you would never know she is has a serious heart condition. From what we have read and been told by our doctors, the only sign of this condition other than the murmur and the ultrasound is that she could have spells when areas of her skin will turn blue due to lack of oxygen. We haven’t seen the blue yet, but we are monitoring her closely.
Our focus right now is keeping our baby girl healthy and making sure she is gaining weight so she will be able to recover more quickly from the surgery. GERMS are our enemy like never before. Lots of house cleaning and no trips to Chic-fil-a.
We are trusting our Father. We know that His grace is enough. His mercies are new every morning. And we are singing GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS to the top of our proverbial lungs.
Please pray with us and for us. Pray especially for Sally Jane. Pray for Violet and Rose as they adjust to a new baby in the house. Pray for me to be able to faithfully lay my life down for Sal and be careful to be attentive, gentle, and consistent with Vi and Caroline.
Thanks for caring enough to read this.
Peace.
-cwjr
