This is how our day started... first doctors visit so happy!
Where to begin, I really have no clue... I never imagined that Tuesday September 14th, 2010 would forever change our lives.
Yesterday we took Lyric to see her Doctor because she has had a cough and we wanted to make sure that it wasn't RSV or a bad cold. The doctor listened to her chest found no reason to think it was RSV but she heard a murmur, she said that sometimes when babies get sick they can develop a murmur but she wanted to do a chest x-ray to make sure we didn't miss anything. We did the chest x-ray and found that Lyric's heart was enlarged... they repeated the x-ray to make sure it wasn't the angle of the x-ray and again her heart seemed large for her small body. Our pediatrician then sent us over to Children's hospital to have an echo cardiogram done. This took about 25-30 minutes and Lyric did great she just laid there and kicked a little. The tech finished up the ultrasound and I asked if I could dress and hold Lyric and she said that she just needed to check real quick with the Pediatric Cardiologist... at this point I felt my throat closing but tried to tell myself it was just routine... Travis was like "I'm sure this is just routine!" The doctor came in and listened to her heart and got up and said "let me draw you a diagram so I can show you what is going on." I then felt all oxygen leave my body... as a mom I felt I had been hit by a truck. He went on to explain the way a healthy heart works and then he told us how Lyric's was working. She has a large hole in her heart a condition called Ventricular Septal Defect... we don't have too many details right now but he said that it can be corrected with surgery.
A ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a defect in the ventricular septum, the wall dividing the left and right ventricles of the heart.
This is the most common heart defect in babies... 2-6 babies out of 1000 are born with it and in 80-90% of these cases the hole will close on its own but in Lyric's case the hole is so large, they give it a 5% chance of closing on its own. We have begun bottle feeding Lyric my breast milk so that we can monitor her intake. She is having a hard time eating because of how hard her heart is having to work it is like she is running and trying to eat at the same time. Also she is burning a ton of calories working so hard and she is not taking enough in to make up for it. The doctor told us "To be honest, you need to be prepared for surgery because in my 25 years of doing this I've never seen a hole this size close on its own." These are words you never want to hear as parents and although this maybe a more routine surgery for the doctors it shook our very beings. Open heart surgery on our little perfect baby girl... I had never felt so... everything at once! Travis is a strong man and I'm so thankful for him... I have only seen him cry twice since we have been together and yesterday we both cried as we held our sleeping Lyric.
I don't know why God is allowing us to face this but I do know that His plans are perfect towards those who love Him. Please pray that the hole closes on it own and that in the mean time Lyric doesn't get sick because they said that it can be very dangerous with her heart defect. I have seen God do amazing things and I know that He will do more than we could ask or think!
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Psalm 28:7
Lyric during the ultrasound... she was asleep at this point!
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