Today we celebrate your 6 month zipper day! That is a bit of an over-statement considering your zipper is slowly disappearing, and to be completely honest, it was never very big to begin with! But we are happy none the less. You are stronger, chunkier, and happier than ever. See here, you even started to eat big boy food...
Last week, you had another appointment with some fancy doctors up at Primary Children’s. Every time we have appointments at Primary Childrens, the déjà-vu kicks in. We have to wake you up early, which I hate, and make you take some pedialyte, which you love. We then attempt to enjoy every last second at home, distracting you from the obvious hunger that is kicking in.
As always we jump into our white corolla. Daddy takes my hand immediately and holds it the entire way there. Maybe his intentions are to ease my oncoming fear, maybe it’s just habit. It helps. And I spend most of the drive with my head cocked backwards gazing at your cute face. We never say much. I think we all know there is not a lot to be said. No reason to question why, doesn’t make sense to dwell on the outcome quite yet. Deep down I think we both sit there quietly focused on our family. Our cute family. Hoping the best news for our little one.
Every time, without doubt, dad will turn a light too early. Get used to U-turns little one. There are a lot of them in this family! Maybe daddy is eager to get out of the car, or maybe his memory is really failing him, but he will always turn too early, and daddy will always have to turn around. When we get there, and as always, you seemed so relieved to be out of the car.
Today you were scheduled to get an echo, you know, the test that looks closely at your heart, the one that uses all that goo on your chest. Yeah, the one that leaves you all sticky for the remainder of the day. Thats the one. It also makes sure that the hole is your heart is completely sealed off and that the blood is flowing where it’s supposed to. But, it turns out, and it has been confirmed, even doctors tell me, that you are wiggly one. So this echo they had to sedate you.
After a few preliminary tests, Nurse Practioner Kellie talked to momma and daddy about the medicine that was supposed to help you stay still during the echo. While Kellie talked, you kept yourself pre-occupied by putting handful after handful of paper brochures in your mouth. You were passed hunger, you had hit starvation.
Finally, 4 hours after you had woken up, we were in the echo room. Moments later they had an IV in your hand. You were screaming, yanking on my hair, anything just to make sure I wouldn’t let go of you again, anything to make sure they wouldn’t touch you again. First medicine in the IV, and the crying stopped. Second medicine in the IV, you went straight to loopy. By the third medicine, your eyes were rolling, your laugh was deep, and you were happy as can be.
We laid you back down on the table. Your hands continued to wail around, as if you were playing with a non-existent mobile above your head. Turns out, they couldn’t get a good echo with you playing, so they upped the dosage and you spent the remaining hour of the test gazing into a nurse’s eyes.
When your echo was over, you were taken to recovery. We attempted to give you pedialyte (the last thing in the world you want when you are hungry), but you preferred to do “Triple sow-cows,” as Nurse Practioner Kellie called it. In other words, you were rolling. Your head flinging to-and-fro, arms flailing. You were as high as a kite. When the sedation started to wear off, hunger started to set in, we were finally able to get you to stay still enough to down 4 small bottles.
When all was said and done, Dr. Mart took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the results of your echo. Unfortunately, he let us know that there is still a residual hole in the lower chamber, your Ventricular Septal Defect. That Amplatzer is doing a good enough job that you are not showing any signs of heart failure, but the small hole could be the reason you still have another hole, your ASD as well. If those were the only issues, Dr. Mart would feel pretty confident that in time they would close and you wouldn’t know any different.
However, it never seems to work that way does it?
Dr. Mart reminded us of your other heart defects. The combination of your residual holes and your Bicuspid Aortic Valve, you will continue to see those sweet nurses, and good ‘ol Dr. Mart pretty regularly. It’s all right, I think you like him a lot. He is the only Doctor you let listen to your heart without insisting on yanking their Stethoscopes’.
Here are a few pictures of your Amplatzer:
So that thing pluggin' your heart is made of metal. Its heated just perfectly and molded into a specific shape to plug your hole. It's so cool, that it can keep its shape no matter how much you pull and twist. Once its been made, they screw it onto a little stick. They squeeze that stick and the Amplatzer into a teeny catheter and maneuver the catheter through your heart into the right place. Remember that stick, they use it to push the Amplatzer out of the catheter and into the hole. When its in, they simply twist and unscrew the the stick, and voila! Your hole is plugged!
If you look closely, you will see your Amplatzer. It's just hanging out in your heart on the right. And that's not all the metal you have in your little body. On the left your sternum was closed shut with wire. This makes you so cool.
Love, Momma!
