Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Grace's Cardiology appointment update...

Thank you for checking on us to see how Grace's cardiologist appointment went today!  We love her new cardiologist!!!  She has spent equal time at Boston Children's Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital, so she fully understands the philosophical differences between the institutions and can therefore help us navigate between the two.  Not to mention, (besides being extremely knowledgable) she is super sweet, humble, and truly a pleasure to work with.  We can't praise the Lord enough for leading us to her!

In regards to Grace's echo, overall her heart looks good, however she has a lot of mitral stenosis (which is to be expected, but her numbers are definitely on the high/severe side).  This issue may be the contributing factor to Grace's decreased ability or desire to eat as much (it could also be linked to her constipation and just overall recovering from surgery).  To ensure that Grace doesn't run into any trouble, we will need to see her cardiologist weekly for a while to get a chest x-ray (they are looking for fluid build up in her lungs) and weight measurement.  We need the left side of her heart to grow and the only way that can happen is for her to be consistently gaining weight.  The plan is to make sure that she gains weight by next week's appointment and if she doesn't we will have to find a way to increase her calorie intake, but if that doesn't work, she may need a feeding tube through her nose (trusting in God's provision on that one :-).  If the stenosis in her mitral valve doesn't stabilize, and better yet come down, then she may need a procedure done in the cath lab where they make a small hole between the upper chambers of the heart to act as a pop off valve.  Will you PLEASE continue to pray that Grace starts to EAT MORE and GAINS WEIGHT?!?!  Please also pray that the stenosis in her mitral valve would not just stabilize, but significantly decrease (and that God would get all the glory!).  THANK YOU sweet village!

In case you could use the same reminder as me today :-)

We are praying that God's love, peace, and favor wash over you and that you know how special you are to us!


2 comments:

Elise said...

We will be praying!

Unknown said...
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