Our Daughter...

We found out about 3 weeks since we found out that our daughter had a heart issue. Well here is about what happened looking back on 3 exciting, disappointing and relieving weeks.

Well here are the details about what we know. First of all we are going to have a girl. We said many times that we decided to wait to find out the baby's gender until it was born. Well we were in a routine appointment for a checkup and they listened to her heart. It was about 2% slower than normal and they said go and see a specialist to be sure everything is okay. We said sure since our insurance will pay for everything anyway. And because we figured that it was no big deal at all.

At the specialist (sadly I wasn't there because we thought nothing of it) they said things like we can't find this part of the heart and where is such and such. Ali was overwhelmed and stressed. They also sent her to the best fetal cardiologist in the west (nicely, also in Las Vegas) the same day, asap (getting appointments with this guy is a priority situation only). He said you are okay for today, but come back in 3 days and we will take a much closer look at things on a better machine, which is at a different office (he has 5 offices that we can tell, he goes around to each to accommodate the most people possible, ironically making it hard for us each time we have met with him).

So I went with her to the follow up specialist specialist appointment. At that appointment we found out several things. First of all a bit of background. If you don't know, your bodies heart is made of 4 chambers. It is also broken up into a left half and right half. Both halves take in blood that is oxygen depleted from veins, and pushes out from 2 arteries blood oxygen enriched. Well for our daughter she is lacking the blood returning section in her right side, so at best she is running at 60% return to the heart. She also lacks the Lower Venecava which is an intake area for the right side. This is kind of bad news, but if she makes it to birth she will likely live a life like any other child and never know the difference (you could say she would do everything almost half heartedly, kind of funny but not I guess).

The most serious problem she actually faces is that the Foramenal Valley is much smaller than it needs to be. Usually this is 8-10mm and in her it is 2mm. This is essentially a hole in the middle of the heart in an area that divides the heart into two. What this does is allow breathing through the umbilical cord. After she is born it will close and she will breath through her lungs. If it closes she will slowly suffocate inside Alison. So this means that we have to watch very carefully to be sure that it maintains at least the constant size it is at. If it decreases we will take steps to deliver her early. So to watch it we have to go to the doctor three times a week.

So far after 4 check ups we have seen the Foramenal Valley stay constant in size. If it stays constant then she will be delivered normally and likely have few if any problems. I will be honest however that her chance of survival to birth isn't 100%. She has many obstacles to overcome and things to do before we can really breathe easy (no pun intended). At this point she could very easily die in a multitudinous number of ways (luckily these are things that probably won't happen, and aren't things that regularly happen). I personally am preparing for things that hopefully we won't have to do or deal with but may have to. Alison isn't worrying about those things because it would likely cause her more stress than is needed. Regardless, our and our daughters outlook is very good.

We have prayed and I have fasted (obviously Alison can't) and we feel good about things. I don't know that we feel that things will be okay for sure, but we feel totally confident in dealing with and accepting whatever the Lord sends our way. However the ball rolls we will be prepared for what comes our way. The nice thing is that both of our families have felt the same thing as well. This is really comforting, especially because we don't feel like we have a false sense of security.

Well that is the background of what is going on with our daughters development. I will keep all posted.