As most of you know we found out earlier this week that Kinley has a heart murmur. Her pediatrician scheduled her for an echocardiogram (ultrasound of Kinley's heart) earlier this morning. I was a bit shocked to find out when we got there that infants usually take 2-3 hours for the procedure and must remain still for the entire time, and if they can't remain still they then get sedated- I about threw up thinking of that. Turns out our tech said if she could get 1 hour of stillness she could get everything she needed. Miss Kinley made it for 1 hour and 5 minutes before waking up (thanks to her amazing Dad who gently stroked her face and got her back to sleep several times), just in time for our tech to get finished up- thank God! I'm 100% sure I would have been a mess had they needed to sedate her.
Anyway- we just got a call from our doctor with some preliminary results. It turns out that Kinley has a muscle ventricular septic defect in her heart. Which basically means that:
A ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a hole between the right and left pumping chambers of the heart.
The heart has four chambers: a right and left upper chamber called an atrium and a right and left lower chamber called a ventricle.
In the normal heart, the right and left chambers are completely separated from each other by a wall of muscle called a septum. The right atrium is separated from the left atrium by the atrial septum and the right ventricle is separated from the left ventricle by the ventricular septum.
Normally there is no hole between the two ventricles, but some infants are born with these holes called ventricular septal defects.
Kinley has a "small" hole between the two ventricles of her heart. We will see the pediatric cardiologist the first week of January to see what the next steps are. Our pediatrician believes that there will not be a need for treatment, but Kinley will likely have to have several echocardiograms to monitor the size of the hole over the next few years. 80% of all VSD's close by age 4 on their own, which is obviously what we are hoping for. Because it is a smaller hole, this shouldn't cause issues with growth, her health, etc. We are thanking God that for now, things should continue to be "normal" for Kinley. Here is a website if you want more info: http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/heart-encyclopedia/anomalies/vsd.htm
Other than this little bump in the road things are going great! I can't imagine my life wihtout this little girl, she is absoultey amazing and has completely stolen our hearts!
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2 comments:
I was born with a hole in my heart and I did have to have open heart surgery at 7 months old. That was 26 years ago.
I'll keep Kinley in my prayers.
I'm not sure exactly what my little brother had, but my mom always described it as a 'hole between the two upper chambers of his heart', so it sounds very similar. He has open heart surgery when he was about two (like 3 weeks before his birthday), and did amazing. The doctors monitered him for like 10 years every 6 months, and then yearly after that. He's totally fine, played basketball in high school, and came up with some really great stories to impress the girls about the scar on his chest! :) Just telling you all this to show how normal it can all be, best of luck, lots of prayers.
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