pictures of his heart and watched the function of how well it was working and our doctor told us that he wanted to pretty much rule out the idea of Hypoplastic left heart syndrome. YAY! He said his left ventricle was still significantly small but believes it is due to the Coarctation because apparently it is pretty drastic (If you can't remember what these are just scroll down to the later posts for the pictures).The surgical procedure is basically to go in and cut out the narrowed area of the valve and then just sew up the two good ends together. There are two ways for
which this can occur.The first would be through under his arm which for recovery would be about 7-10 days in the icu. The next route would be through the center of his chest, so they would need to break his sternum and then do the procedure. Recovery for this is roughly 2 weeks. Obviously we're hoping to go in from the side but because it's so narrowed they may have to go in through the chest but we won't find out more until our next visit when his heart has grown more.
Some new information was that the doctor thinks Kayden may have a bicuspid aortic valve.
The aortic valve usually has three leaflets that open up and bring in the blood, but when you have only two leaflets you don't get much in. Hopefully the picture clarifies a bit more because they didn't hit too much on this so I'm still learning.
On this visit we also go to tour the icu and where Kayden will be staying as well as see what he will look like post surgery. A mother agreed to let us see her baby who just had a heart surgery about a week ago. This was a bit hard to see at first because of all the tubes, needles, moniters, the cubical, etc. but then all of that went away and you could see a sweet baby.We felt so blessed to be working with that hospital and that his heart defect was caught early in order to save him.
In this visit they also said that I would only need to be there in Utah close to the hospital 2-3 weeks before my due date which was awesome because before it was a month before. So now I am looking at being in the hospital about a month total and am starting to look for ideas to make myself a "to do" basket. So far I am excited to learn how to crosha hats which my friend Jenessa is teaching me, read my scriptures, and do word puzzles. If anyone has any ideas, let me know :)
9 comments:
You have such an incredible attitude! Thank you for your example. Your family is constantly in our prayers.
ps loved the Halloween post! Your costumes were so great!!!
Chelsea,
boy that pic of that baby brings back lots of memories of every emotion possible when matt was in the icu after heart surgery! we love you so much and are so excited that they ruled out the worst case scenario! Yipee! Love you guys!
Katie
ps. if you want to see pics of matt after his heart surgery, let me know! you may or may not! :)
let me know when you are in Utah for those couple of weeks and I will come visit you. Primary's is just up the street from us.
I also had a "to do" basket even though I was only in the hospital 2 days. I wrote my thank you cards for baby shower gifts and made my birth announcements. Bring your journal. Hope all goes well.
You'll have to tell me when you're going to be here in Utah! i would love you see you!
Thanks for the update, I've been wanting to call you. I'm so glad that you received good news. I know the tubes are overwhelming, but you are right. There is a sweet baby underneath them. That was probably the hardest part having Madison in the ICU, but they take excellent care of those special babies. I just love you guys! Good luck with the remainder of the journey and you're in my prayers.
Hi! That is such good news on little Kayden! I am relieved to hear it. Chelsea, you look adorable pregnant. I hope you are feeling ok and sleeping decently! We are excited to see you soon.
Sarah
I look forward to having you here and close by. We will do whatever we can to help make this experience as easy as possible. Your strength is an inspiration to everyone. Love to the "three" of you.
I love Kayden's name. It sounds as though the procedure might not be as bad as you were originally told. I pray that is so. Is this the "new" Primary Children's near the U.of U. Med Center? Totally awesome facility. I'll try and think of some activities for your to-do basket. Keep in touch. Love you!
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