Elliana had her second echocardiogram on Monday morning. We saw the same doctor (the only one who has asked her name) but in a different location. We didn't have to go back to the great big ped's office at Baptist. This was a much smaller office and significantly less scary.
Dr. and Ultrasound Tech spent about 45 minutes looking at various angles of Elliana's heart. I tell you what - this girl is busy. Most of that time was spent chasing her around the screen, asking her to hold still just for a second. And no, I hadn't had any caffeine that morning. :-)
The doctors conclusions were slightly different this time. At our last appointment with him, he believed that she had pulmonary stenosis - a condition where the entrance to the pulmonary valve is too narrow. But after this ultrasound, and after 6 weeks of heart growth, he believes this valve is fine - no reason for concern there.
I started to cry after he told us this. Tears of relief/joy/but-still-so-sad. It was the first actual good news we've heard about our daughter since this nightmare began to unfold.
But then there was some 'bad' news, although in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't feel that bad. The doctor did find an opening between two ventricles in her heart. A 'moderate' sized opening. This is actually a fairly common heart condition - among children who have heart conditions.
The prognosis for her heart is good. Most babies do well in the newborn period and even into early infancy. Open heart surgery would be necessary between 4-6 months of age to repair the opening. The doctor sounded very positive.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
We don't understand how this information fits into the rest of Elliana's prognosis. We've been told, more than once, that she'll live a few hours, maybe a few days. But we SO DESPERATELY want to hope that maybe they're wrong.
Maybe if her heart really isn't in terrible shape (and it isn't in terribe shape - it's working beautifully!), she'll pull through and be the fiesty little fighter that I think she is.
No comments:
Post a Comment