We lost our first pregnancy, a girl, in September 2007. On April 20th, 2008, we found out I was again pregnant. Extremely overjoyed, we waited to get too excited until after the magical 12 week mark. Once it passed we were so excited to meet this new child who would be so loved and wanted.
At our 20 week ultrasound in August 08 it was discovered that Logan had abnormal heart chambers and we were sent to a better ultrasound machine for better pictures. The OBGYN doctors recommended a consult at a major heart center in our area: our choices were Little Rock, St. Louis or Houston, but our doctor preferred Houston. In the meantime we visited a local pediatric Cardiologist who told us Logan would have a rough go of it and would likely require a transplant or die.
On October 3rd, 2008 we made our first visit to Houston and met with Dr. Nutting, a cardiologist on staff at Texas Children's Hospital. He did a fetal echocardiogram and formally gave us a diagnosis of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He explained that Logan would require 3 surgeries to modify his heart and it needed to be in Houston. In the same visit we toured the NICU with our favorite Nurse Practitioner, Priscilla Reid.
Once we arrived back in Tulsa with a treatment plan the preparations began! The nursery was put together, showers were held and the pregnancy went without another hitch. In December we relocated to Houston until Logan was able to live in Oklahoma with monitoring.
Logan was born at 2:04pm on December 17th, 2008 and was rushed to the NICU. Amazingly he was pretty healthy (7lb, 7oz, 21.5 inches long!) and was scheduled for his first surgery 2 days later. The first surgery went off without a hitch, recovery was fairly swift, and we were discharged to our Houston apartment on Jan 1st, 2009. Logan grew every day and gained weight like a champ (usually the biggest hurdle for heart babies) and we began to dread the 2nd surgery.
On March 30th, 2009 Logan underwent the Glenn surgery and again recovered swiftly. We were released to move back to Oklahoma on April 17th! So we loaded up 2 very full vehicles and drove back home!! Originally a point of sadness for Amy, no daycare provider would touch Logan, so Amy quit her job to stay home full time with Logan.
We visited Houston at 6 month intervals for checkups and our Tulsa cardiologist quarterly. Life was good!
In May 2010 we headed to Houston for a routine checkup when our Cardiologist, Dr. Altman, entered the echocardiogram and told us Logan's heart function was bad. Like 7 out of 10 bad. We were being admitted to the hospital for further testing. We were completely shocked, but eager for a new treatment plan and a solution to this function issue.
After over a week of medicine tinkering, blood tests, an MRI and a sedated echo,we were informed that the scar tissue on Logan's heart muscle was too extensive to recover from and he would need a heart transplant. A Heart cath was scheduled, bloodwork was done and paperwork began amid meetings with various doctors/personnel.
There are so many steps for transplant, so here is a condensed version:
Medical Determination made: May 2010
Blood work: May 2010
Tissue typing/Infectious disease/other consults: May 2010
Medical Review Board approval: June 2010
Insurance approval: June 2010
Listed for organ: June 2010
Waiting for Organ: June 2010-August 27, 2010
-ECMO: August 18th-August 23rd
-Berlin Heart: August 23rd-August 27th
The Call: 5:30pm on Friday August 27th, 2010
Transplant: Began at 10pm August 27th and ended at 10am August 28th
Recovery: Ongoing
Medication/Rejection monitoring & 3 months isolation: <------We are here!
HOME
Once we have been released we will stay in Houston for 3 months and then go back home to Tulsa.
You've Got To Be Kidding Me
1 day ago
