Thursday, March 25, 2010

UPDATE: DAYS 8 & 9




3/24

Boring..boring day!! Sooo ready to finally get out of this hospital. At this point everyone's main concern is getting Jaida eating how she used to before surgery. It's weird because sometimes she'll eat 4 oz. and then others she'll eat about 2oz and 25mL and be too tired to drink anything else! This up and down stuff has got to stop! Other than focusing on getting her eating habits up, i've pretty much been lounging around all day.. not much to do in a hospital lol. Daddy didn't come visit us tonight because he was cleaning the house, getting it ready for baby girl and I to go home!! =) Chances are if Jaida eats consistently tonight and both her chest xray and echo looks good, we'll be going home tomorrow! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!


3/25

So who would've thought it would just start storming out of nowhere? Such a great night to be home in bed snuggling with your loved ones.. which is EXACTLY WHAT I AM DOING!! Yes! Jaida and I left the hospital today! Thank the Lord!! Her chest xray was fine and her echo looked pretty good too. The only thing the found was still a tiny bit of fluid around her heart. They actually prescribed her Lasix which should help that out a lot!! Other than that, she's doing perfectly! She really did heal nicely. Thank the Lord there were no major issues!!! Just a few bumps here and there..but just like Mrs. Val said.. you take one step forward and two steps back. I'm just happy that her particular problem could be fixed. Through the hands of God that directed her surgeon, her little heart is healed!! Thank God for a perfectly healthy baby girl! Thank you guys once again for reading up on her and giving me feedback, words of wisdom and encouragement, and just simply keeping track of what was going on. It's so nice to know that so many of you guys took the time to read this blog. I truly made this for you guys!! If one person read this and they know a heart mom.. they can pass my experience to them as someone did for me, and it can really impact this whole heart experience. This stuff is definitely intense, i'm not going to try and pretend it wasn't-- but by surrounding myself with positivity and peace, it made the ride a lot smoother! I'm not ending this blog here. Initially I was going to just make this to share Jaida's heart journey with everyone and then I realized her heart journey isn't over.. Jaida is going to have a special heart for the rest of her life-- why end here? This isn't the END of her journey, this is only the beginning! Thanks again for reading..i'll be updating this frequently as time progresses and my angel grows. I love you guys!!!

Soo ready to go mommy!!

& the packing begins.. this is just a little bit..

"My mommy is sooooo funny!!!"

"Please.. no pictures!! I must FOCUS!"
(& yes that was my temp. cot!!)


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About Me

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My name is Brandi and my darling honey and I have been together a little over four years now. Four months ago I gave birth to our first daughter, Jaida. This little girl is the most amazing Angel that one could imagine. God has truly blessed us in several aspects! I decided to start this blog in order to share Jaida's heart journey with family and friends near and far. Our darling daughter Jaida was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot and will be undergoing open heart surgery on March the 16th. My hope is that one day perhaps another heart mom will come across my blog as I have come across several myself, and find that my experiences can possibly help them through their own. Having a child with a heart condition can be awfully challenging mentally, physically and emotionally but EVERYTHING is possible through the hands of GOD.

About Jaida's Special Heart

My daughter was prenatally diagnosed with a Congenital Heart defect (CHD) called Tetralogy of Fallot when I was 22 weeks pregnant. This specific defect is made up of four different issues. The first issue is the ventricular septal defect (VSD) which is a hole between the ventricles. In Jaida's case, she had three large holes (one they did not know about until she was in the operating room) all of which had to be patched. The next issue is obstruction from the right ventricle to the lungs (pulmonary stenosis). Jaida's aorta also lay directly over the VSD which causes thickened muscle in that region that needs to be removed. Lastly, in Jaida's case, the pulmonary valve was extremely small for her gestational age. Unfortunately, due to its cartiledge-like texture, it could not be saved and was removed completely during surgery. Many children can go several years without needing a valve.. some can live life forever without one (most will need one). However, medical professionals are working on a new, less invasive approach to valve replacements. Instead of re-opening the chest cavity between the breastbone, researchers are trying catheterization (a tube placed inside of the vein & artery in the groin that lead up to the heart). I know that before the diagnosis of my daughter's condition, I had no idea about heart disease whatsoever. The bad thing is most people don't know anything about CHD unless they know someone who has it, or it happens to them or their child. Because of this, heart disease research is being poorly funded. In order to research trials and studies for less invasive life-saving surgery for children and families with CHD, it is imperative that more people familiarize themselves with this disease. This type of funding allows doctors to save millions of lives every year. So I encourage you to get involved and to get educated, because this disease is extremely serious and a lot more common than you may think.



Jaida's Story