Showing posts with label cardiology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cardiology. Show all posts

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Happy 2nd Heart Day Mila Hopey Bear!


2 years ago today our sweet Mila Hope was recovering from Open Heart Surgery. I've been looking at her pictures for the past 2 days remembering the day we had to hand her over not knowing for sure if we'd get to take her home again. I can't think of any other day in my life that was harder than that day. We trusted the Lord and knew He had a plan for Mila's life! We are so grateful to CHP and her surgeon Dr. Morell for performing her life-saving surgery. It still amazes me how the Lord orchestrated our journey to Mila, how He sustained her and got us there just in time, and how He has redeemed her life. From tiny and sick, scared, malnourished babe, to strong, healthy, bright, and FULL OF LIFE. It's still tough to look at her pictures, but our sweet girl is a survivor by the grace of God! It is my privilege to watch our beautiful girl grow up....and I never forget for even one second that her life is a TRUE miracle! Happy Heart Day (12/19) Mila Hope!

Mila: miracle, favoured, emulating, pleasant or soft

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Mended Little Heart

Mila had her 6 month cardiology follow up appointment today. I was nervous, as always, right before cardiology appointments. She weighed in at almost 23 pounds and sprouted to just over 30 inches!
Here she is getting her EKG....
a mouth full of snacks typically keeps her pretty happy....imagine that ;)
I know you'd never guess based on her size!
The cardiologist came into the room and looked over her records and asked how she was doing. I blurted out "fabulous, really really good." Then I thought to myself, "Ugh now since I said that out loud something will be wrong...stupid stupid stupid." I talked myself into calming down and realized I was being ridiculous thinking that! He was just as excited as I was that I didn't have to check any of the "other health conditions" on the checklist they give us at each appointment. Last time quite a few of those boxes were checked with symptoms and other health conditions and this time I read through them all twice because I couldn't believe I didn't have to check ANYTHING. I was so thrilled in fact, that I wrote in big letters right across it "NONE" with one of my best 2nd-grade-teacher smiley faces! Maybe that's why he was just as excited as I was...it was that smiley face ;)

Anyways, we chatted a bit about orphans as we always do, and then he checked her over.  Last time he decided to keep her on the Lasix because her liver was still low and palpable and there was just the smallest indication of extra fluid. This time her liver was exactly where it was supposed to be and no indication of issues with extra fluid. So we get to stop the Lasix, which means Mila is completely MED-FREE!! I think she gets a diploma for that or something! He listened to her heart and looked rather confused. Immediately my heart jumped to my throat and I asked what was wrong. He said something to the effect of "I could have sworn she had leak from her VSD patch last time she was here. And I told him he was right, that she did. He said "I don't hear anything at all. Usually leaks don't go away" He even double checked her records. I loved seeing that confused look on his face and thought "That's MY God!" When he finally got to the echo he saw just the teeniest tiniest (definitely smaller than before) lead from her patch. We were told this happens after patching ASDs and VSDs sometimes if it's a big hole and she would just probably have it for life as it was in a place where there really isn't much ability to grow new muscle/tissue to close on it's own and it shouldn't cause her any problems. It doesn't much indicate anything medically that it's smaller, except that God is healing her heart in ways that can't be explained by medicine :) And I think that's pretty cool! He took new measurements for pulmonary hypertension and her numbers showed no pulmonary hypertension any more!!! We were hopeful that the surgery would solve the problem of the pulmonary hypertension but it was a "wait and see" kind of deal. Once he finished the echo, he smiled and said "see you in two years!" I was definitely not expecting TWO years! But I'll take it! Praising God tonight for healing our jelly bean and shining through her!
The "look"

Getting so big!

Love that smile!