As some of you are aware, Ash was born with a congenital heart defect called pulmonary valve stenosis. Pulmonary valve stenosis is a condition in which the flow of blood from the heart is restricted or blocked at the valve that separates the heart from the lungs. Narrowing of the pulmonary valve causes the right ventricle to pump harder to get blood past the blockage. This condition was detected when Ash was one week old as a heart murmur. He does not have any discomfort or symptoms of a heart problem. You would never know there was anything amiss without the use of a stethoscope or other diagnostic instrument. We have been taking him approximately every two weeks since the murmur was detected to Pediatric Cardiology of Oklahoma in Tulsa in conjunction with St. Francis Children's Hospital and Heart Hospital for monitoring. The stenosis was diagnosed as moderate and slowly getting worse with a likely need for future intervention to repair the defect and prevent congestive heart failure. Well, as of his appointment two weeks ago, the doctors gave us the news that the time has come to take action. Thursday April 9th, Ash will undergo a heart catheteritization and balloon valvuloplasty procedure to widen the valve. In this procedure, a special catheter containing a balloon is placed across the pulmonary valve. The balloon is inflated and the valve is stretched open. For more information about the procedure see :http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1162224669806LS-0868%20Flyer%20REV.pdf. It is a sterile, non-surgical procedure. Derek and I will take Ash to Tulsa on Wednesday for preliminaries and stay overnight. The procedure will take place early Thursday morning. We will then stay overnight in the hospital for monitoring. All is expected to go smoothly and we should be discharged to go home on Friday. Ash should be perfectly fine after the procedure and will be back to normal (Derek and I, however, will likely need the rest of the weekend to recover). Of course we are very concerned and worried. It is nothing short of terrifying to find out that your child has a heart problem. All we want is for him to be healthy and happy and lead a normal life. We hope that this procedure will be able to correct the defect, avoiding any future possibility of surgery. So, please keep Ash and our family in your thoughts and prayers this week as you prepare for the Easter holiday.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Our Little Heart
As some of you are aware, Ash was born with a congenital heart defect called pulmonary valve stenosis. Pulmonary valve stenosis is a condition in which the flow of blood from the heart is restricted or blocked at the valve that separates the heart from the lungs. Narrowing of the pulmonary valve causes the right ventricle to pump harder to get blood past the blockage. This condition was detected when Ash was one week old as a heart murmur. He does not have any discomfort or symptoms of a heart problem. You would never know there was anything amiss without the use of a stethoscope or other diagnostic instrument. We have been taking him approximately every two weeks since the murmur was detected to Pediatric Cardiology of Oklahoma in Tulsa in conjunction with St. Francis Children's Hospital and Heart Hospital for monitoring. The stenosis was diagnosed as moderate and slowly getting worse with a likely need for future intervention to repair the defect and prevent congestive heart failure. Well, as of his appointment two weeks ago, the doctors gave us the news that the time has come to take action. Thursday April 9th, Ash will undergo a heart catheteritization and balloon valvuloplasty procedure to widen the valve. In this procedure, a special catheter containing a balloon is placed across the pulmonary valve. The balloon is inflated and the valve is stretched open. For more information about the procedure see :http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1162224669806LS-0868%20Flyer%20REV.pdf. It is a sterile, non-surgical procedure. Derek and I will take Ash to Tulsa on Wednesday for preliminaries and stay overnight. The procedure will take place early Thursday morning. We will then stay overnight in the hospital for monitoring. All is expected to go smoothly and we should be discharged to go home on Friday. Ash should be perfectly fine after the procedure and will be back to normal (Derek and I, however, will likely need the rest of the weekend to recover). Of course we are very concerned and worried. It is nothing short of terrifying to find out that your child has a heart problem. All we want is for him to be healthy and happy and lead a normal life. We hope that this procedure will be able to correct the defect, avoiding any future possibility of surgery. So, please keep Ash and our family in your thoughts and prayers this week as you prepare for the Easter holiday.
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Thanks for the update. Your family will be in our prayers.
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