Fetal Echo Results

Yesterday, I had my fetal echo done. It was with Peter's cardiologist, which was very comforting since he knows Peter's history so well. He saw the four chambers of the heart, the aorta (with appropriate blood flow) and the left and right pulmonary arteries. He said overall the baby's heart looked like a normal, developing heart. He did see a mild VSD (hole in the bottom portion of the heart), but he wasn't concerned about it. You may recall that Peter had a moderate to large VSD, but that was only one of his two heart defects. I'll say more about that in a moment. The Dr. said that he would suggest we bring the baby in at about two weeks old to have another echo just to give us peace of mind. I was so glad he suggested that. One of my concerns with this baby has been that I will be obsessed over him throughout his newborn days because of what we went through with Peter. I want to enjoy those days, not worry through them. Having an echo done so early will definitely bring us peace of mind to hopefully enjoy those early, precious days that pass SO quickly.

Our hope and prayer is that this baby's VSD will close even before birth (which is very possible). VSD's are fairly common in the world of congenital heart defects. Depending on their size and severity, there are a few options. Sometimes they simply close on their own. Sometimes they simply require monitoring (like an annual echo) to make sure they are causing no problems. Also, if they are causing minor issues, they can try to close the VSD with medication or sometimes with a heart cath. The last option is obviously open-heart surgery. This baby's VSD is mild, while Peter's was moderate to severe. I remember on that very first night in the hospital with Peter, we only knew of the VSD. At that point, surgery was only a possibility not a likelihood. I remember talking to many nurses and medical professionals that informed us that there were other options they would probably try first. It wasn't until the next day when we found out about the pulmonary artery issue that the entire scenario changed for Peter. That second defect changed things dramatically because we found out that Peter was in congestive heart failure and that his left lung was not on board.

The cardiologist shed some light on his thoughts of how Peter's heart defect could have occured. He said Peter was probably born with the VSD, but when his PDA closed (that is the blood vessel that bypasses the lungs while the baby is in utero - it usually closes within hours or days after birth), the tissue could have easily cut off the left pulmonary artery as well. He said that tissue is extremely close in that area and they have seen that type of thing happen before. In other words, Peter may have had left lung function for a little while, at least until the left pulmonary artery was cut off. We will never know for sure, but it is a very good theory and I appreciated the possible explanation.

This is probably more information that anyone cares to read, but I wanted to put it all down in writing before I forgot it. All in all, the fetal echo results were very good, but we do pray that even the mild VSD would close and/or cause no serious problems.