Gracie has had a heart murmur since birth, but our pediatrician wasn't worried about it until her 6 month check up. Many newborns have murmurs but Dr. Catherine thought this should have gone away by 6 months. She almost didn't send us to the cardiologist, but after I left she called me back and said she would just feel so much better if we went ahead and went to see someone just to be "better safe than sorry" and to rule out anything! But she wasnt convinced it was anything to be worried about.. so I wasnt worried either. So I made the appointment...
Yesterday we had the appointment and they did a EKG and Echocardiogram (ultrasound) of her heart and found a little more than I was prepared for. Gracie has a large hole between the atriums of her heart call an atrial septal defect. It is one of the most common heart defects children are born with, but I was not prepared for that news! So needless to say, Sam and I were shocked yesterday when we found out the news. I just really thought they were gonna tell us it was a benign murmur and that it would eventually go away... not the case.
This morning the cardiologist called me back and told me that bc the hole in her heart is so big and she is still so small the only way to fix it right now would be open heart surgery. So they are going to monitor her closely over the next year and wait till she gains more weight so they cant treat her less invasively by doing a cardiac cath and not have to do open heart surgery -- she is 8kg now, they want her to be 15kg before they do the heart catheterization which is where they go through her femoral vein in her groin area and go up with a catheter to her heart to repair it that way. They will be doing weight checks and check ups on her regularly and more ultrasounds of her heart over the next months and if things look like she might need the hole closed before then, then they will go ahead and do the surgery. But we are praying for her to NOT have to have open heart surgery and for her to get big enough to have the heart cath in a year or so. I feel very confident in the decisions of my pediatrician and cardiologist-- they have both been overly sweet and helpful through this shocking process. My pediatrician is Dr. Catherine Chidester (with the Yukon clinic) and I absolutely love her and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a pediatrician! She is so relational and sweet and has always taken the best care of our girls! With all that being said, I covet any prayers for Gracie at this time!
Our specific prayers now:
-PRAISE that God is so good, and led Dr. Catherine to catch this early! Yall- it could be so much worse!! This is FIXABLE!!! and this many times isn't detected until the baby goes into heart failure later in life ... SOOOOOO thankful for God's graciousness through all of this!!
-peace for Sam and me as we wait this out... it is so hard knowing something is wrong and waiting to fix it... but this is the best decision at this time
- growth for Gracie- that she would continue to grow and meet all her mile stones like she has already been doing- 15kg is the goal (this will prob take her a year to reach this weight)
- that our insurance would approve Gracie to get the RSV vaccine through RSV season coming up
-for the doctors as they continue monitoring her over the next year!
-that we would all stay very healthy during this time... Gracie is just at a little higher risk now bc of all this!
I rest in knowing that I serve a sovereign Lord who loves Gracie more than I ever could love her! He holds her sweet little self and heart in the palm of His hand... He created her EXACTLY the way he wanted her! He NEVER makes mistakes and He is GOOD ALL THE TIME! So I am so thankful that none of this is a surprise to Him...He uses things like this to draw us closer to Him and make us more like Himself. He is so gracious and so good! Richie preached a sermon Sunday on anxiety (boy did I need to hear this one!) and the main points were when we are faced with hard things and have anxious thoughts, we must humble ourselves before the Lord... for he is ALMIGHTY but at the same time he CARES for us so much- We must have faith and trust in him, that HIS plan is way better than our plan...and we can rest in Him and CAST all our cares upon Him! Psalm 56:8 says that he holds all our tears in a bottle--- he cares so much for us that he holds all our tears in a bottle --He is a relational God who loves us so much-- no matter what! I am resting in his gracious love right now... Glad I dont have to carry this bc it is too heavy for me... So thankful for Jesus and his perfect work on the cross...Resting in the shadow of His Almighty presence....
God is so good... ALL THE TIME! Thank you so much for your prayers!! =)
Gracie bug getting her Echo done... sweet thing had to be still for 30 minutes! Thats hard for a 7 month old!! Thankful for the sweet and patient ultrasound tech!!
Waiting to get the results from her tests!
It is hard work being a baby!! Sweet girl! I was loving this moment holding my sweet sleeping baby girl!!
