Cardiologist Visit

The visit went well. The doctor confirmed the diagnosis she received in China back in March that we received with her referral. He was able to give us more detail of her condition. She does have Tetralogy of Fallot and the VSD (hole between the ventricles) is large but he did say the size was not a concern. He said he was able to see how much the ventricle is blocked leading to the valve and said it was “moderate”. This blockage is a thickening of the muscle, not some sort of build-up. So the VSD will need to be repaired as well as this blockage.

This is open-heart surgery. The doctor said she is old enough and strong enough to have the surgery now, and while we don’t need to rush; there is no need to delay either. So, he is going to forward her medical info to a surgical team at Vanderbilt and schedule the surgery for, mostly likely, before Christmas or right after.

Audrey will have her first visit with her Pediatrician on Wednesday. This doctor has also adopted a little girl from China and will be able to advise us as to whether or not Audrey will be adjusted enough to her new home life for the surgery this soon. If she feels that we need to delay the surgery and that it is safe to do so, we’ll then talk to the Pediatric Cardiologist about postponing it a month or so.

Obviously we didn’t get the answer we were really after, but as I said before, God has this all in His hands. Open-heart surgery on a 15-16 month old baby is serious and sounds scary, but we trust God completely. Please continue to pray for her and us.

Please also pray for Alex. He is still recovering from jetlag and is behind on the school work he needed to do to catch up. He was absolutely great in China, but at the end of each day there he was tired and didn’t get to do much of the work assigned while in China.

Well post how the Pediatrician visit goes sometime Wednesday evening.