Still Broken

One thing about these girls: they keep us on our toes.

Lenay had another concerning echo a couple months after her surgery.  In very basic terms, the occlusial device is doing its job and then some.  It is plugged in her PDA but also sticking far enough up in her pulmonary artery to restrict her blood flow.  This was known at the time of surgery, but it was not a concern because she would get bigger and as a result her heart and more specifically her pulmonary artery would get also get bigger, making the device a non-issue.

Well.  That didn't happen.  Meaning: while she IS bigger, she's just hasn't grown enough to make it a non-issue.

The doc was fairly concerned at that follow-up echo.  Another surgery could be in her future, he said.  What they would need to do is go back in, remove the device (which can be tricky) and then do a ligation procedure to close the PDA.

Sidenote: I do not like it when our doctor uses the word "tricky."

Especially when he is talking about fixing my baby's heart.

I had a million questions.

The device was in perfect placement.  Meaning, there was no mistake in surgery.  It just has to do with Lenay being so tiny, and not growing quite as fast as we would like her to.

The doc explained that as long as she remained asymptomatic, we could hold off on the surgery and just wait for her to grow.

She is followed very closely, with EKGs and echos on a regular basis.

In the meantime, she remains on the daily aspirin dose, as well as a cardiac medicine called digoxin, which helps her heart to pump harder.

Eric and I always talk about how opposite Lenay and Campbell are in this way: Lenay is the one who never presents with any symptoms, but in reality she has some pretty scary problems.  Yet Campbell has all the scary symptoms, but no major problems so far.  More details on Campbell to come.

Our next cardiologist appointment is in April, at which Lenay will have her first sedated echocardiogram.  Sounds fun right? 

Oh how we've been praying for her little heart.

She is now 18 months.  She is 12 months post surgery.  She weighs over 19 pounds. 

What.  19 pounds doesn't sound like very much for an 18 month old?  Well I will have you know that she has just graced the growth chart for the first time at 18 months!

She's been doing a good job growing.

Let's just pray that little heart has been growing too.