I'll admit that this morning I started imagining all the worst possible senarios and had a few moments in which I began to unravel. I was reminded to take those fears to Jesus, and got my peace restored, and wait for answers.
We saw the cardiologist today. They did an EKG and an Echo Cardiogram. During the Echo Todd and I could not really understand what we were looking at until we had been looking at it long enough that it finally dawned on us that we were seeing blood flow through the middle of the heart where there were no valves. Hmmm.
The Cardiologist explained it to us in great detail in very easy to understand terms. Letha has a hole in her heart called an Atrial Septal Defect - Secumdum type, LARGE. It is causing secondary issues: Dilated (enlarged) Right Atrium, Right Ventrical and Pulmonary Arteries. The hole is about the size of a penny (18 mm).
The GOOD news, and there's a lot. Her asthma symptoms are all mostly caused by the ASD. Her growth (or lack thereof) is probably due to the ASD. And Fixing it will give her more energy, help her breathe easier, especially during exercise, it will allow her body to spend some energy on growing. There won't be any permanent damage, her heart will be able to recover it's normal shape and the arteries that have been enlarged will shrink some, but she will grow into any other enlargement.
The procedure itself is an outpatient procedure (NO SURGERY! Praise the Lord!). They will go in through a catheter in her groin and place a patch (you can view the kind of patch used HERE. ) The patch is permanent and her heart will grow around it.
We are SO excited! I was quite literally skipping to the car! Honestly, I have never thought to pray about a resolution to her Asthma, and here we are with one! I have never been so excited about one of my children being ill, but this pneumonia has given us a wonderful gift. Even Letha, as we left the cardiologist, said, "I wasn't getting the whole "Thankful for pneumonia" thing until now!" Imagine, the thought of breathing easy and having energy and breath to run and play with her friends.
Thank you all my friends for your prayers! We will be keeping you posted on Letha's progress and her procedure on April 1.
