Details of Madi's Appointment

UPDATE: I heard back from the doctor. He didn't compare the numbers per se but he said the report from two years ago described the opening as "tiny" and that is how he is describing it now. So we don't know if the opening is shrinking or not. We just know that we go back in 18 months to 2 years, they most likely will not do surgery at all and that she is low, low risk.

First of all thank you for your patience. We have had a long three weeks with Daddy working a lot of over time and almost a week of Isaiah getting up 1-2 times a night (Mommy isn't used to that anymore). We spent a little time last night as a family and then I was too exhausted to think clearly.

Thank you to those that called to find out how the appointment went. And thank you to all of you that prayed for the appointment. The overall outcome is very encouraging. However, we won't have a final answer until they look over the sonogram results in the next couple days.

Madi became nervous as we set out to Children's Hospital. It wasn't pretty but we made it through -- at one point I was trying to pull her arms away from her chest so they could put on the stickers and wires and I was lifting her whole body up and down because she had her arms pulled in so tightly!

**Let me insert that she usually has an EKG and a sonogram but last year they just did an EKG because there was no purpose in a sonogram since they wouldn't do surgery at age 4. That doctor heard a small heart murmur (which doesn't limit her activity), but he could barely hear the PDA.**

We met with the cardiologist after the EKG and sonogram. He listened to her heart while she was sitting, while she was laying down, but didn't hear much if anything from the PDA which would indicate it isn't very big. Then he left to look at the sonogram photos. When he returned, he said he would have to wait until he saw the results after the techs made final measurements, but he thought the opening was very small. (I have placed a call into his office and asked for him to compare this years measurements to the one taken two years ago to see if it is closing.) We were also told that a PDA is one of the low risk heart lesions and that because hers "appears" small that makes her a low, low risk for problems. AND if that is confirmed with the results of the sonogram . . . they won't recommend surgery AT ALL!

She will have to have regular dental cleanings . . . a large amount of plaque released into her blood stream could cause a heart infection if something were to catch inside that extra heart valve. He was mostly concerned that in 15 + years when she is on her own that she may not keep up with dental cleanings. We were also told that we can make her next follow-up appointment in 18 months to 2 years instead of a year as we have been doing the last 3 years!

Thanks again for praying. It seems that God has heard our prayers asking for the valve to close itself and not require surgery. Praise the Lord!

(Hopefully this made sense -- I've been working on this for almost 2 hours and keep getting interrupted.)

This is a picture after it was all over.

She was a little happier once they gave her Mickey and an alarm clock.