When Matt and I were told that Morgan had a hole in her heart, we were dumbfounded and in shock. It was a few weeks after the babies were born. The boys were already home, and we went to visit Morgan late one evening after Macy went to bed. When we got there, the nurse said, "the cardiologist would like you to call him at home". In my head I thought "that's never good".
First off, we didn't even know she had seen a cardiologist. We stood there next to her isolette on speaker phone with the doctor who spoke matterafactly, as if we already knew she had a heart defect. He explained that she had two defects, an ASD and a VSD, as we looked at a hand drawn diagram he left for us by her bedside. He asked if we had any questions and further explained that holes are common and often close on their own. We drove home that night and made the decision to keep her defect to ourselves until we knew more about it. Our pediatrician referred us to a cardiologist from Children's Hospital Los Angeles. From that point on, Morgan saw the cardiologist ever 4 months. Every time it seemed to be the same, no apparent change.
As Morgan reached one, the cardiologists started talking surgery. Because the holes were not closing, surgery was almost certain. In April he referred us to one of the surgeons from CHLA, whom we met with a month later. He said we could schedule the surgery anytime, so we decided sooner or later would be better and the summer was the best time for me to help with her recovery.
Morgan had her surgery July 6th and it went great! She was only In the hospital for three days and was up and running around the minute we got home. Here are some photos from the hospital stay.
The night before bath
Eating on Mom's lap in our room at Ronald McDonald House
Playing with Daddy before bed.
In my scrubs before surgery!
An hour after surgery
The next morning... Still sleeping soundly
Feeding myself breakfast one day after surgery!
Watching movies and snuggling with mommy two days after surgery
I'm going home today!
With my nurse Brittany. I was upset at mommy because she took away Aunt LeeAnne's keys for the picture.
Here I am a month after surgery. My incision is healed!
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