Ninteen Weeks Together: A New Heartbeat

     The initial medical report I received from China regarding Isaac noted that he had a heart murmur.  It also said he had a cleft lip & cleft palate and normal female genitalia.  In his pictures, Isaac had neither cleft lip/cleft palate nor female genitalia, so you can see why we had little cause to trust the validity of the medical reports. I was a good medical-momma and checked him head to toe on our first morning together in the hotel room 28 floors above Guiyang, China and lo-and-behold there was indeed a large blowing heart murmur. No lub-dub, only a 'swish-slosh'. Heart defects are not uncommon in Down syndrome and can be quite problematic so I knew immediately that surgery was going to be in store of my tiny little Asian.

     Several months ago I wrote about Isaac's diagnosis of the PDA (patent ductus arteriosis) HERE and you'll recall we were praising the Lord that of all the holes-in-the-heart you can have, Isaac had the smallest and most fixable of them all. In fact, he had the typical-kiddo hole-in-the-heart hole and it had nothing to do with the Down syndrome. Awesome-sauce!

       We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning on Thursday and Isaac was hamming it up in his monkey pjs with the other kids in the waiting room. I was concerned that having had nothing to eat since 7pm in the night before he would be a little cranky, but he was more than distracted with all the new sights & sounds. Thankfully, they allowed me to get dressed up in a bunny suit and bring Isaac into the operating room while they gently put him to sleep. It was a comfort to my heart that mine was the last face he saw before he drifted off. He was a champ!  He didn't fuss or worry or fight at all.  I think the true blessing of the day was his procedure gown had a string!!

He was NOT fond of that net on my head.

Kisses

Yeah!  A string!!

 

     It was a little over two hours before the surgeon came out to give me the good news that all was well. (He actually scared me a bit when he first walked in and chose to shut the door, sit down and silently stare me in the face in response to my lighthearted "so, how'd he do?" Good gravy, doc. Lead with "all is well"!) I've put the before and after pictures of his heart below. For the medical-geeks out there, it's pretty cool to see. I suppose if you are queasy, you may want to scroll down quickly. I think the AMAZING part of it all is the entire procedure was done through the major vein in Isaac's leg. No scars on the chest, no week long hospital stay. We were in & out faster then a trip to the urgent care for an ear infection!

BEFORE: you can see the blood flowing between the aorta & pulmonary artery in the circle and the poor blood pressure in the aorta going to the body in the box.

 

AFTER: the "top hat" is damming the flow between the aorta & pulmonary artery in the circle above, and the blood flow pressure is normal in the aorta (box below)

     There was a bit of a mishap when I got to Isaac in the recovery room. He wasn't breathing well and he had a vascular 'rash' on his surgery leg that showed signs blood wasn't circulating appropriately. I quickly put my hands over him and prayed for the Lord to move rapidly. We most certainly hadn't come this far to have complications!  In the next 45minutes while the nurses were running to get the appropriate equipment & calling the surgeon to help Isaac, his breathing normalized and the vascular 'rash' completely disappeared. Praise the Lord! 
     It was my job to keep my scared little two year old completely flat on his back with no movement, crying, straining or laughing or eating, but keep him awake. R-R-R-I-I-I-G-G-H-H-T-T-T.  I'm so thankful for the kindle and Elmo and Gramma! We watched special videos; I sang Itsy-Bitsy spider 4,000 times, and let Isaac put his pulse oximeter (band aid light on the finger to measure oxygen levels) up my nose to see it glow. (That got me BIG points in the toddler arena...a little difficult to explain to the cranky recovery room nurse!)

Can you tell we've been up since 4:30am??

Chewing on his favorite string & watching Elmo

     By God's grace & the miracle of modern medicine Isaac had heart surgery and we were home 9 hours after we arrived!  How crazy is that?  Technically, we were to stay on bed rest for 48 hours...this is my boy on 'bed rest':

     You can see, he is obviously doing VERY well.  :)  It was strange to rock him to sleep that night knowing he had a new heartbeat. It had never in his little life beat like it does now.  The literal rhythm of his life is radically different. That God has given wisdom and insight to humans to care for the brokenness of our bodies is amazing. He truly does "heal the broken hearted & bind up our wounds". (Psalm 147:3)
     Isaac will have regular follow up with a pediatric cardiologist in the next few years, but he shouldn't need any further procedures and can lead a full and healthy life. The only remnant of the day is a small scar at his diaper line:

Bandage on

Bandage off

     A HUGE thank you to all that covered us in prayer!  It was such a blessing to know that so many people---from Washington to Tennessee to Minnesota to California to Canada to Delaware---were interceding for us. God has continued to surround this little boy of mine with miracles upon miracles!!