Medical Update

This is not the "to be continued" post. It is still in progress..

Here's a medical update. Some of you may have been wondering. We took both girls in a couple weeks ago to the pediatrician for a complete physical. (We have the most awesome pediatrician's in the world, by the way!) One of them is Madalyn's cardiologist (and now Anna and Victoria's) and our pediatrician, and also was my pediatrician when I was just a child... :)) HA!! The other is a wonderfully smart lady who is extra caring and really is just great and knows her stuff!!! I am thrilled that we have such wonderful doctors in our very tiny neck of the woods!!

We took Anna in for bloodwork and an echo first. She did really great during the echo, staying as still as a 20 month old can, to get very important pictures of her heart!! She did not enjoy the bloodwork at all, which is very understandable. I felt so bad for her, as she kept looking at me with those big beautiful eyes during the whole procedure like I should be saving her from such misery!! That was hard!

Victoria went 4 days later and I was thankful I was somewhat recently prepared and that we are in a small community and hospital. We have been through many echo's and bloodwork nightmares with Madalyn, but sometimes when those things are in your distant memory, you sort of forget all the torture your little one has had to go through. (I think I actually try to forget!!) So, after informing the radiologist and nurses that Victoria would have a much more difficult time, we decided to sedate her as we knew she would be completely miserable with someone even just touching her. They were prepared for us when we came in and we had a really wonderful nurse! It was the right decision in the end and she slept through the echo, was squirmy and a little fussy during the bloodwork and she did cry when they stuck her (which was twice) but she handled it so amazingly well! Then she had to go for a chest x-ray. This is actually the most uncomfortable looking contraption. She had to sit in only a diaper on this teeny tiny bicycle seat, hold her arms up, surrounded by this clear plastic contraption that held her arms straight up and held her completely still where she couldn't move at all. She did awesome!! Mostly because she was still loopy from the meds, but that is okay.
Go to this blog of a fellow RR mom, one who we got to meet while in UA, who got a really cute shot of her little Autumn, in the exact same x-ray contraption. Scroll down a bit, it's the 6th picture. Oh my it is almost the cutest picture ever!!


The really great news is that both girls' heart function looks great! Anna will most likely not need any kind of surgery or care besides follow-up's. Victoria had surgery and it was confirmed that she did have a pretty significant VSD that was repaired. We were very concerned that there would be permanent damage from her pulmonary hypertension, but that all looked good as well! Both girls' bloodwork is looking good, and there are not any major issues we will need to deal with in the near future. God is soooo good!!! What a wonderful blessing this is and we are so happy for the girls that they can continue settling in without any major medical problems to deal with!! Thank you so very much if you prayed for our little girls and especially Victoria! This is such a truly amazing answer to prayer!