Matters of the heart take 2

Well, we had our check up with Dr. Mooradian today at pediatric cardiology. Amelia weighed 19 lbs 6 oz and they had her at 26 3/4" although I'm not sure about that because she was taller than that at her 6 mth apt. She did pretty good for the most part especially since she hadn't taken a nap at all this morning. They did an EKG and an ECHO. The echo was interesting since the last time she had one she was only about 2 months old and was content to just lay there. This time she was moving all over the place, but was pretty good when given a toy to hold. Eric was proud because she would only hold the toy in her left hand. He's really hoping for a lefty! She did not appreciate the part where she had to put the sensor on her neck though. I think she is like Aunt Lindsey and doesn't really want people touching her neck at all!

Dr. Mooradian came in after all that and did a check up on her. He started our conversation with "I have some good news and one thing we need to discuss" We've been around enough to now know that means some good news and also something that is not so good.....

Good news first. The coarc looks good. He said there was a small narrowing but in medical terms it was insignificant so that's good. The bicuspid valve was ok too- just something that we will keep an eye on over time. He told us that if something needs to be surgically repaired it would be far down the road so more good news there. The other valve he was watching also looked really good so more cause for celebration, and the hole that he saw in her heart last time that he felt was a little larger than is normally seen has actually closed completely now. We were super happy to hear this as well.

Now the not so great news... he found a new issue that he had not seen before. It is called mitral stenosis. From what I understand it is where the valve is not opening properly or fully and blood flow could possibly be restricted. Dr. Mooradian told us it is something that we need to watch closely and only time will tell what we are going to do. Surgery is the only thing that will fix it, and this surgery will be a bypass surgery which is much more serious than the coarctation we had in November. This was a bit of a bummer for us obviously because we were so hoping that surgery would not be necessary again- especially bypass surgery. Eric and I have talked it over at length today and had some time to digest the info and discuss all the possibilities and I'm feeling more at peace with it already. It is definitely out of our hands and not something we can improve with any worrying, but that is definitely easier said than done for a mommy :) We'll go back in September for an echo and check up hopefully she will cooperate because if they can't get what they need we'll have to check in to the hospital and have her sedated to get it done.

Those are all bridges that we will cross when we get there though. For now we're going to enjoy the summer and just have a blast with our growing baby. Thank you everybody for your continued support and prayers- we definitely had more good news than bad today and for that we are so very thankful!

Information I found on mitral stenosis

Google Health

Web MD