Logan and his Heart

[Kattxbrat]

Two days after we came home from California, my 2 month old son had an appointment to go see a pediatric cardiologist. During his two month check up by his PCP, she had heard a very loud heart murmur she did not think normal so wanted it checked out more. Well thats what this appointment was for. After a cardiologist listened to his murmur, he said it did seem to be very loud, even when he heard my son's heartbeat from his back.

There are two type of heart murmurs, basically...a heart murmur can commonly be heard in a child  at any age, and its just basically a extra "sound" you hear along with your child's heartbeat. Most of the time, this can be innocent and nothing to worry about. It can even be heard when an adult, but thats rare. Then there are the murmur sounds that show something is not working quite right with the heart...unfortunately the latter being my son's case.

The heart valve that pumps blood into his heart on the left chamber does not close all the way, so when the heart beats and pushes the blood out through another valve to the rest of the body, the blood backs up into the first valve, so now he has a very abnormal, enlarged heart, pretty soon it will be pushing against his spine.

When he was born, my family and I had noticed how quickly he breathes, how rapid like he is out of breath. He would breath normal when asleep but always very quickly when fully awake. Now we found out why. If this goes untreated with his heart valve, he will always be short of breath and not be able to do anything strenuous like run or excercise when older.

So now he is on medication. He's taking carpitol which helps the heart to pump faster, pushing the blood that is backing up more forcefully, and next monday he'll start on lasix, which helps to get rid of excess fluids.

What worries me the most, or has me on pins and needles I should say is he is going to be monitored very closely, at least once a week to look for signs of changes. If he gets better, then awesome, the medicine was enough to help him. If not...if he stays the same or gets worse, he's going to need cornoray bypass surgery...and I am dreading if it comes to that to see my baby boy cut open like that. I understand it'll have to be done if thats the only way to help him, but doesn't mean I like it one bit.

Thank God for my hubby being there for me for emotional support. I wanted to cry at the hospital when the doctor told me it looks pretty bad for our son and surgery is a huge possibility at this point, but he told me there's still a chance he won't have to go through it, so not to dread and worry over something that may never happen. Its advice I've given out plenty of times myself, but it helps when anxiety and fear overwhelm your own sense of logic to hear the words from someone else.

[thegbogles]

Aug. 29, 2009 at 5:17 PM

I'M SORRY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE GOING THROUGH THIS. I HOPE ALL GOES WELL WITH YOUR LITTLE ONE. ANY TIME YOU NEED TO TALK FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE ME. MY FAMILY AND I ARE ALSO GOING THROUGH A HEALTH CRISIS WITH MY GRANDSON. HE HAS TUBEROUS SCLEROSIS. SO MAYBE WE HAVE A LITTLE IN COMMON. MY THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOUR LITTLE SWEETIE.