Thursday, March 17, 2011

Stella's Heart


Our Stella girl is 10 months old! Time flies and she is the SWEETEST baby, we are so happy to have her as our girl.

When Stella was in utero she had a tiny bright spot show up on her heart during an ultrasound at the Perinatal Center. Now no one really knows this but her numbers were also slightly elevated for Downs Syndrome and that bright spot CAN be a soft marker for Downs as well. We were reassured by our peri that it was most likely nothing and based on the rest of her ultrasound he was confident she did not have Downs Syndrome. We chose to believe that and never really made a big fuss or told many people about it. Thankfully when Stella was born she was very healthy and beautiful!

A few weeks ago Stella got some BAD allergy symptoms and a cold that was really bothering her. Since she was super snotty and unhappy we took her to the pedi just to be sure it wasn't anything major. He determined that it was just allergies like her big brother and some Zyrtec really helped clear her up. On another note, when listening to her heart he asked if we had been tracking her (insert fancy heart word here) since birth? Huh? I said "No, she did have a bright spot on her heart in utero but nothing of concern" Dr. J told us that he was hearing a faint murmur in her heart but it might have just been because her blood was pumping overtime since she was under the weather. He said he wanted to go ahead and set us up with an echocardiogram at Childrens just be sure it was nothing of concern and have it noted in her medical records. We LOVE Dr. J and trust him wholeheartedly so when he told us not to worry we didn't! I honestly sort of forgot about her appt until the day of and then we just went on our merry way with some much appreciated help from Auntie D.

SOOO that is the backstory on Stella's heart!

Today Rob heard back from Dr. J's physicians assistant Ms. A (who we normally see with our kiddos, only Dr. J if Ms. A is out of the office) and she gave us the rundown. Basically she said she wasn't sent the actual pictures over to her but she just had the written report. She said we shouldn't lose too much sleep over it because Stella is 10 months old, healthy and happy but they are referring us to a cardiologist because she seems to have a small opening somewhere around her left aorta. She said it is often normal in utero but most of the time closes up before they are born. Stella's is still showing up and that is why they heard the murmur when she was sick a few weeks ago.


They are referring us to a cardiologist appt next week so that he/she can take a better look at the pictures and let us know exactly what we are dealing with. She thinks based on the report it is NOT a large hole and also said that the tech noted that the results may be skewed because "patient was uncooperative" (Stella doesn't really DO "lay still and quiet while I use an u/s probe to look at your heart from 10,000 angles" )

So anyways, we are slightly worried because its our Stella girl and we hate that there is ANY cause for concern but we are just waiting it out and hoping that the cardiologist can give us better news that there really is no big issue or solution needed. Thanks for praying for our girl, we ask that you would pray specifically that the size and location of the opening is minor and will not require any surgery or repair!

We should go to the cardiologist sometime next week and will keep everyone updated!

Always,
Jesi

3 comments:

The Ruby Zebra said...

YIKES, sweet Stella will be in our prayers. Along with you too!

Elizabeth said...

Stella will be in my prayers along with you and Rob. I pray that you and Rob have peace during this all.

With crazy dare devil Max and Stellas heart I'm sure these next two will be a piece of cake! :)

Love you girl

Andrews family said...

SO scary! We will be thinking about you guys. Please keep us updated when you can!