Cardiologist visit

Yesterday was our first trip to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. We were lucky enough to get in yesterday after having received a referral the day before. After the trip to the ER on Sunday, everything was looking pretty serious.

Abby had an EKG, chest x-ray, and an echocardiogram. She has an 8mm secundum atrial septal defect. There are 5-6 cases of this per 10,000 live births and it is the most common type of atrial septal defect. The hole is causing a slight enlargement of the right side of her heart because it is having to pump extra blood. Right now, they are just going to monitor her and hope that it closes on its own. If it doesn't close, then surgery will be done when she is 4-5 years old or 35-40 lbs (she was 18lb 4oz at her 6 mo. check-up today, which is 90th percentile). Most likely, she would not need open heart surgery to repair it as there is a new surgery that is minimally invasive.

The good news is that she does not have a right branching aortic arch or a vascular ring around her trachea, which would have meant serious surgery. We still don't know what is causing her respiratory problems, but it may be a flimsy trachea or epiglottis. We go back to Arkansas Children's Hospital on Monday to see an ENT. If we don't get any answers there, the next step will be to see a pediatric pulmonologist.

Abby is not in a good mood today. She had her 6 month check-up, which meant 4 shots. She weighed 18lb 4oz (90th percentile) and was 26 1/8 inches long (75th percentile). She still has tiny head (somewhere between 10th and 25th percent), but it is growing fine.

I'll update you Tuesday once we visit the ENT. Thanks for all the prayers!