Good News

I forgot to update, but Jack had his cardiology follow-up a few weeks ago. The doctor listened to his heart and various pulse rates, and declared him healthy. Just to be certain, we went back later in the day for an echo. That came back clear and fine.

He's healthy as a clam and his heart is working properly, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with him. :) We are very happy and relieved.

The doctor also said Jack doesn't need to be seen for at least five years. Yay!

Here we go (again?)

I honestly don't know what to make of things.. Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday of this week, Jack has had prolonged central cyanotic episodes. I even took him to the ER on Monday, just to get him checked out. We don't have a regular cardiologist out here yet, as I'm still waiting on medicaid. All his tests came back fine, but they did an EKG and x-rays.. I want an echo done, but obviously can't afford it right now.

I'm worried. I talked to my sister, whose daughter has a leaky valve (amongst other things), and she suggested that Jack might be a bit leaky too because her daughter gets the same way.

I've been recording the episodes in a notebook, and so far there's no rhyme or reason to it.

I just want him to be okay. I really don't want to go through all this again..

Perfect

Jack saw Dr Wong today. He had an Echo and an EKG. Dr Wong said everything looks perfect--Jack's heart looks great, the patch looks great (and is doing its job), there's no more shunting...

He said we go back in 3 months and, after that, not for a year or two.

We are all SO relieved! He's a normal little boy now!

Oh, and if he gets any dental work, he'll only need antibiotics until July 17, 2008... not for the rest of his life, like we originally thought.


Thank you, thank you to: Dr Trento (surgeon), Dr Wong (cardiologist), Dr Ferry (cath lab surgeon + cardiologist), Dr Cheng (surgeon), Ann (surgical nurse practitioner), and the ICU team at Cedars Sinai. This would not have been possible without them and their expertise.


Yay!! :D

In the beginning...

At 9 months old, my youngest son Jack was diagnosed with a heart murmur. At 10 months old, he was diagnosed with ASD--Atrial Septal Defect. His was different in that there are 2 holes in the membrane separating the left and right upper chambers of his heart.

Thereafter, every 6 months, Jack had a cardiology appointment where they'd do an EKG and an echocardiogram. At one point, Jack's doctor said the holes were getting smaller. At his last appointment, he told us that because of the location of the holes, they likely hadn't gotten smaller--they're very difficult to measure anyway.

We went through a process that took about 2 months: we talked to Dr Ferry, who said he would try to perform catheterization on Jack and close his holes using a sort of mesh plug shaped like a dumbbell; we had to wait for authorization from our medical group for the catheterization to take place at Cedars-Sinai, as no other hospital in the Valley would do it; and, we finally had to wait for the weeks to turn into days until Jack went into surgery this past Wednesday.

I'll save that for another post.