Some of you know (and many do not) that Abigail was born with a heart defect. Colin and I chose not to make the news completely public for a couple of reasons:. One, we had a difficult time discussing it without completely breaking down...and two, until we were sure what we were dealing with, we didn't want to take everyone on the roller coaster ride with us.
Just to back up...while I was pregnant, they discovered that Abigail had a hole in her heart during a routine ultrasound. The doctors said that it may or may not close up and to have an echocardiogram when Abigail was born. Fast forward...a few days after she was born, she had the echo done.
To be honest, we were nervous but completely unprepared for what the doctor told us. Abigail has an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and a tear in the Mitral valve, which requires open heart surgery when she is about a year old. The doctor said that she also may have a narrowing of the carotid artery, which would require surgery immediately but that we needed to wait another day to completely know for sure.
We were devastated. How could this happen and why? Often the questions everyone asks themselves when something like this happens. Abigail was 5lbs 3oz when she was born...so tiny. Open heart surgery when she was that little...so scary. After a sleepless night, they did another echo and found out that she only had a small narrowing of the carotid artery and did not need surgery. Thank God!!! We were so relieved! That really put everything into perspective for us...things could be a lot worse.
She does, however, still have the ASD and a tear in the Mitral valve, which does require open heart surgery. I am by no means a doctor and Colin can explain everything much better than I but....basically what all of that means is that Abigail has a hole and a tear in her heart thereby causing blood to leak within the heart where it is not supposed to.
We have seen her cardiologist a couple of times since coming home. Last week, he said that things still look about the same with the ASD and that the hole and tear have not gotten any bigger. She does have an additional small hole in her Ventricular Septum, but the doctor said it can be patched with the same patch for the ASD during the surgery.
Since Abigail's 1st birthday falls during winter (which is obviously cold and flu season) they do not want to run the risk of her getting sick. So she will either have her surgery Fall of 2013 or Spring of 2014, depending on how things go over the next several months.
We love her cardiologist. He is wonderful. We feel very lucky and blessed to have some of the best doctors in the country. Abigail is in good hands. She is one strong girl and loved by so many. We'll continue to keep you all posted on her progress.
Sorry for the downer post. We just wanted to share this with our close family and friends. Don't worry....happy posts from now on. :)
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