At her first doctor appointment at 5 days our pediatrician noticed a heart murmur. She scheduled another appointment for a week later to see if the murmur was still there or if it had resolved on its own. Apparently it's common for babies to have them and then they just go away. But hers was still there so she had us meet with a pediatric cardiologist for an ultrasound. The appointment was on Friday so we sent Isaiah over to his favorite babysitter (his only babysitter) and headed to the hospital for her appointment. The cardiologist said it sounded like a hole in her heart and then took us in for the ultrasound where he found she has six holes in her heart. Two of them are "patent ductus arteriosus" which are arteries left over from the fetal stage. All babies have them but in most babies they close on their own by two weeks of age. Eliza's are still open and these two (of the six) seemed to be the most concerning to the cardiologist. Even so, it doesn't seem to be anything too serious. He said only about 1/3 of these ever require treatment (surgery) and he felt confident hers would resolve on their own.
The other four holes are called "ventricular septal defect" which is a hole in the wall between the heart's two pumping chambers. These ones he said are relatively common and generally resolve on their own in the first 2 or 3 years of life; if they don't then they have to do open-heart surgery.
Luckily for us none of her holes seem to be very serious. The cardiologist wants us to come back in six months to make sure the two PDA type defects have resolved on their own. But other than that there seems to be nothing to worry about.
1 comment:
She is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. In the ulikely event of me having another baby, I was wondering if I may use her picture on our birth announcement?
Tell Isaiah "Hi" for us! He is so smart (and equally as cute as his sister.)
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