Boring

We had our one month post-op cardiology appointment today. Maya was very excited because she LOVES Dr. Brownlee. She knows that no shots are involved so she is always in a good mood for these appointments. They did the usual height/weight, blood pressure, pulse ox and EKG. She has gained all the weight back that she lost before her surgery and during her hospital stay, and that makes me very happy!

Then Dr. Brownlee came in and began his exam. This is the part that always makes me a little nervous because this man hears amazing things with his stethoscope. He heard the hole in her heart when she was two weeks old and knew what side it was on and how big it was. I know that he can tell just by listening what is going on inside that little body. While the echo cardiogram confirms his suspicions and takes measurements, these first few seconds usually tell it all. So he listens for a while and then he says, "Well Maya, your heart sounds pretty boring now..." And at that point I knew I could relax a little bit :)

After the exam, we headed over to the echo room and he took some measurements of her heart and compared them to the previous echo done about a month ago. Her heart is already shrinking and the valve is holding up nicely. Praise the Lord!! Her left side measurements (the enlarged part) have gone from 38 and 25 to 32 and 23 in the past month. Kevin wanted to know the amount of leakage before and after surgery and Dr. Brownlee said that the valve had a 70% leak before and has a 3% leak now. I get goosebumps now from just typing it.

He said that Dr. Kup did an amazing job- he is impressed with how well he was able to repair her valve and having no replacement or foreign material is amazing. This confirms what we already think about Kup. He is a truly talented surgeon.

He took Maya off of one dose of her Lasix. Now she will just take one dose in the morning. I know that she is getting better because Lasix is always the beginning stage of treating heart failure. When they started her back on it last year, I knew that surgery was coming. When they doubled the dose and then moved it to twice a day I knew that surgery would be soon. So to take her off one dose (with plans to eliminate it in three months) makes me want to jump for joy!

So there you have it... our little Maya has a boring heart and I just love that! She is doing great and is starting to get back to herself again. Our prayers have been answered and we are so blessed that her little body has healed. Thank you all for your prayers and support on this journey... we could not have asked for anything more.


But I have trusted in Your faithful love, my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance.
Pslam 13:15