Friday, August 20, 2010

Have you hugged your cardiologist today?


Bodie has. We're a fan of cardiologists lately, on account of them being in the business of saving Bodie's life on a fairly regular basis. But our favorite by far is Dr. Nancy Kim, Bodie's regular cardiologist. We LOVE Dr. Kim.

The day we found out Bodie had a heart defect, (I was about 17 weeks or so pregnant), the tech left the room and the perinatalogist came in with 2 other fellows. They were very solemn and spent a lot of time looking at the heart. That's when I knew something was wrong. Then the perinatologist spent a lot of time talking about the grim diagnosis, poor quality of life, in uterine demise and possibility of termination. It was all a blur, and honestly all I can truly remember thinking is that I was going to lose 2 babies in one year (for those of you who don't know, we lost a baby with down syndrome and a cystic hygroma when I was 3 1/2 months pregnant in March of 2009, 3 months before we got pregnant with Bodie).

The perinatologist said that a pediatric cardiologist with a specialist in fetal echocardiography was in the office on Thursdays (my ultrasound was on a Thursday) and he wanted her to take a look just to make sure. Enter Dr. Kim - the FIRST person to give us any hope that our baby might be ok. She didn't downplay the severity of Bodie's heart condition, but she told me that there was HOPE, that it was a rough road, but that she had children in her practice with HLHS who were thriving. She just said we would get through it together if that's what we wanted to do. And a beautiful relationship was born.

I continued to see her throughout my pregnancy and at every ultrasound when I would ask her if she happened to find a left ventricle yet, she would just laugh and say no, but that I should keep hoping. :-) She was always so upbeat that she made a really trying and scary experience as fun as possible. And she is now Bodie's cardiologist. We're so excited Bodie has been out of the hospital long enough to finally get to know Dr. Kim. He sees Dr. Kim on a weekly basis, and has ekg's and echocardiograms done every other week.

Today, he had an ekg and echo and both looked great - unchanged, which is exactly what we wanted (barring the miracle of finding a fully functioning left ventricle, of course!). He is a beefy 13lb8oz now and grew another 1/2in, so is 26in long (that's our long skinny guy)! Since his eating has been so sporadic due to the teething, I was thrilled that he'd gained weight. And he was all smiles, as you can see.

Next Thursday is our pre-Glenn consult with Bodie's surgeon. Please pray that all goes well. Also, Dusk has caught a cold - please pray that he recovers quickly and doesn't transfer it to any of the rest of us, least of all Bodie!

2 comments:

  1. My sweet Bodie. I am so in love with you, so yes, I will be praying for you, my love! :o) I am confident that all will go well. God has a very unique purpose and plan for you, my baby, and I believe for a smooth surgery and recovery. Sending you millions of hugs and kisses: Nairi (ps! it's gotta be reaaaaally hard or your daddy to stay away from you... I mean, have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? :O) God Bless you, my peanut! SMOOCH!

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  2. Praise God that Bodie is doing so well. Glad to hear of great appointments and gaining weight. Praying for fast recoveries and that no one else gets sick.

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