On June 24th we scheduled a doctors consultation to plan Daniel's open heart surgery. This was to check the status of Daniel's condition and plan for his surgery. We both knew it would take place in SF, but weren't sure where we would all stay and what to expect. The past six months leading up to this have been filled with much uncertainty and dread with the idea of Daniel on an operating table with doctors cutting into his small lifeless body. So with heavy hearts we brought him to the appointment expecting to hear the worse.Skipping through the process of arriving, sitting in the waiting room, and eventually waiting for the nurses to check Daniel's vitals. I noticed something was a little out of the ordinary.
The nurse took his blood pressure two times. The first time it read 126, I can never remember the second number. She said that the reading was not right and checked it again and it was something like 107 over something. I thought to myself, "for a boy who's condition gives him high blood pressure, that sure isn't very high". After all of the tests were completed, we were lead into the room where the echo cardiogram was going to be performed.
Daniel got hooked up to a bunch of electrodes all the while watching, "Bob the Builder". The cardiologist slathered the gel on Daniel's chest and started moving the sensor thing all around trying to get different pictures of the heart. I was amazed to see his heart in such clarity as it pulsated. The whole time I was expecting the woman doing the echo test to say, " oh, here it is!", but nothing. As time passed, I could sense some frustration from her. She eventually started complaining that there might be something wrong with the electrodes connected to Daniel, and they must be "dry". Whatever that means.After a long time the woman finally informed us that the wall thickness to Daniel's heart was normal. Usually someone with this condition would have the left side of the heart thicker or bigger than the right side. This would be due to creating higher pressure to push the blood past the narrowing of the aorta. She showed us the Aortic valve, it had three separate "leaf like" flaps that were opening and closing with each beat. In the last check up two of the flaps were partially fused together, another sign of his condition. We were asked if the initial doctor said anything about Daniel's condition getting better. We said no he didn't.
She then left us to get the doctor who came in to take a look at the readings. He and the assistant (I think that was what she was) conversed a little and then he turned to us and told us that Daniel's condition had almost completely disappeared! After checking Daniel's vitals, he told us that the blood pressures in both lower and upper were normal. He did say that he (Daniel) still had a murmur, but that the coarctation was small enough to not effect his blood flow. He told us that we should still come back every year to monitor, but, with enthusiasm, said he will not need surgery!
Something important the doctor told me was this:
"...the reason why children have surgery is because the coarctation impedes the blood flow causing high blood pressure. After the surgery, scar tissue will form and create its own narrowing, but we rely on the surgery to lessen the disruptive flow enough to bring the blood pressure down to safer levels. In Daniel's case, surgery would in fact worsen his condition..."
The funny thing about this whole experience was the comparison between the woman who took the echocardiogram on Daniel and the doctor. One seemed disappointed about not finding problems and the other was very happy that Daniel would not need surgery.The good news took a while before it finally set in and we celebrated over a Chicken Cesar pitta wrap at La Bou!
Well, I guess all we need to worry about now is Daniel's normal life of rascalism, rambunctiousness, and tormenting his older sister!
This ordeal has proven that miracles really do happen! I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and to especially to thank God for healing my son!
