Cardiologist's Report

Peeper saw the cardiologist again today (at yet another of his satellite offices; I think we've been to all of them now) and had another echocardiogram.

We were hoping to see some shrinking of the hole in her heart, but he said that there's been no significant change.

We have a regular check-up with him in two weeks, and at the appointment two weeks after that, he'll do another echo.

If he's still not seeing any restriction of the hole, he will send a tape of the echo to the surgeon for his opinion.

If that's the case, we would probably be looking at a surgical repair in March or April.

When I pressed him to tell us what he thinks is most likely to happen, he put the odds of her needing surgery at 50%.

Which, I suppose, is rather a non-answer, but sounds much more professional and doctorly than, "Fuck if I know," which is probably what he was thinking.

But, six weeks ago, he told us that 80% of ventricular septal defects completely close on their own, and others shrink to the point of having no impact,

Given that, her odds of surgery seemed to be about 10% at that point, so I'm thinking that the fact that we've not seen any improvement yet is not particularly encouraging.

Yesterday, the pediatrician told us that some VSDs can be repaired just using a catheter, but that Peeper's is in a bad position for that, so her repair would require open-heart surgery.

At four to five months old.

Yeah. I know.

The doctor tells us that this is the most common congenital heart defect and the surgery is almost routine and that the risk is comparable to an adult having their gallbladder removed, but still.

Even if we had a 100% positive guarantee that nothing could possibly go wrong, they are still talking about cutting open our child's heart.

How can that possibly be an okay thing to do to anyone, let alone someone so tiny?

We are, of course, hoping to see some change in a month, and hoping to avoid the surgery, but realize that it's just as likely that it will happen.

As always, your heart-healing mojo is greatly appreciated.