Week 4 - Hospital/Birth Updates

Cardiology Updates
Mom and I met with the cardiologists last week. As of now, they are still seeing the same condition (Tetrology of Fallot with the VSD and pulmonary stenosis - a hole between the left and right ventricle and a small valve connecting the heart to the lungs). However, the lead cardiologist is recommending a different pathway to surgery. 

Most babies with this condition receive a plastic - very temporary - shunt to send blood to the lungs... this lasts for about 5 months until they are bigger for a valve replacement surgery. Because we live in El Paso, he was concerned about the safety of this shunt. It is much more likely to move or have problems than a valve replacement and we are 13 hours from the Houston hospitals where she could come to have it fixed. 

He is recommending that we fix the valve right away.

Benefits with an immediate fix:
- She is likely to have blood flow going to the correct places because her heart will be functioning like a normal baby heart - less need for corrective action during the 5 month surgery
- She is likely to eat and grow better because her blood will be moving normally

Downside with an immediate fix:
- At the moment, all valve replacements (biological or plastic) have a timeline... they do not grow... they start to leak and degrade... Autumn's valve will - by nature of her size right now - be smaller than the valve they would replace at 5 months. This means that she's looking at a second surgery to replace this baby valve around 2 - 5 years instead of 5-7. 

We feel good about the reasons the cardiologists are looking into this immediate fix and plan to be open to their suggestions once she is born.

For the visual people, we are skipping the first step (The temporary shunt operation) and going to the complete repair with the VSD patch and a valve replacement.