Here is the latest and not so greatest...Our baby that is due in early January has been diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a very serious heart condition. She will have a surgery shortly after birth to make her pulmonary artery not so big as it is will cause major problems with her lungs and the rest of her heart. At this time they will put a shunt in her heart so the blood will flow correctly until she is big enough for them to put in a pulmonary valve which they believe is absent. The first two echo's showed all was normal and he just wanted us to go back once more to get one more shot of the two arches and the baby would not cooperate. This time was different. He scanned forever. He let me know half way through what he was afraid of. At first he thought she had Andrew's condition of Truncus Arteriosus. Then after he saw what he needed to rule it out, he said he is almost sure she has "Tetralogy of Fallot". An equally serious condition as Andrew's but once again, a very different one.
Aubrey's is fixed permanently, she had SVT since before she was born. But, her ablation last week fixed hers for good and she is of all meds!!!! Hers was an electrical problem. So we have really stunned the cardiologists again. Neither Andrew's nor Aubrey's are related and neither are genetic, trust me, if they were genetic, we should have stopped there! We got much advice and opinions form geneticist and cardiologists about having another baby after Andrew and after genetic testing, we got the green light. Then came Maci, no heart condition, thankfully. Now this one...I was a mess yesterday when I got the news. I kept thinking, we should not have had anymore! But, God created her, not me! My mind immediately went to NICU thinking. She will not come to my hospital room. She will not be discharged with me. I won't get to hold her for a long time as she will most likely be put right on the ventilator, according to the cardiologist. She will need surgery immediately. I might not even get to go see her before they operate! He has a plan for our lives. He has blessed us with some very healthy kids that have heart conditions. I hope that sound right. If you saw them on the street, you would never know. When they get sick, even seriously sick, they bounce back so, so quickly.
We are just asking all of you to pray for her and us. She needs healing. If not, pray her pulmonary artery will not get much larger as to cause major lung problems. They will confirm all her diagnosis on Friday morning when we go for another scan. Then we will discuss delivery(c-section), surgery, etc. As bad as Andrew's was, we just need that same grace that we had going through it. The waiting is the hard part. I have 12 more weeks of pregnancy. Baby is due in early Jan. My mom will need much prayer, too as she will have our other four children to care for while this all happens. With Andrew it was a total of 7 1/2 weeks before he came home! I would love that part to be shorter.
Of course, financially, God will provide as always! But we have to now consider saving her CORD BLOOD as they can use that later on for her surgeries and maybe Andrew's next one as well. I have heard that is very expensive and our private insurance does not cover this. Please don't feel sorry for us, only for those who will be pessimistic about our situation. We are hopeful and our faith will increase daily. We have a unique situation, but we get through it. (not alone) ALL emails, cards and phone calls mean so much to us, our support team!
It is not too late to pray this all will change. God can baffle doctors with miraculously removing tumors and He can finish forming her heart perfectly if He wants! We are prepared for both. Thanks in advance for your prayers!