September 9, 2013
I took Luke to our pediatrician for his routine 2 month check up. He needed some shots and the Dr. checked all the normal stuff. As she was listening to his heart, she kept on listening for quite a while and then she said that she thought she heard a heart murmur. At this point she did not seem too worried and I wasn't either. She said that many children have murmurs and often outgrow them. But later on as she was plotting Luke's weight on his growth chart, she confirmed my recent worry that he was not gaining as he should be. With both of these concerns combined, she referred us to a Pediatric Cardiologist, who I called right away and drove straight there. Justice was with me, and Brian left work to meet us there. At this office Luke had his blood oxygen levels tested and an EKG given by the nurse, which showed some irregularity in his heartbeat. Then we went in to see the Dr. himself and he did an Echocardiogram, which is like an ultrasound of the heart. I was holding Luke and Brian and Justice were there too. The Dr. got the image on the screen and as soon as he saw it, his demeanor subtly changed and I knew something was quite wrong. He said a quiet "ohhh" and had a serious expression on his face. We braced ourselves for what he would say. As soon as he began speaking I interrupted him and just said to him in Arabic (so Justice wouldn't catch it) that we didn't want to scare Justice. He understood and proceeded, watching the way he phrased things, in English for our sakes to be sure we understood with all the medical terminology. (He was trained in the USA and has excellent English).
He explained that Luke has quite a large hole in his heart, between the left and right ventricles. (This is called VSD, or ventricular septal defect). It allows blood to flow from one side into the other, which it should not do. He then showed us that his aorta is significantly narrowed towards the top of the arch that it makes. This one is more concerning. (It is called Coarctation of the aorta).
It was clear that this needed some help right away. He recommended we come to Boston Children's Hospital soon, which is known to be the best for Pediatric Cardiology. While we were still there he emailed the head of the department at Boston Children's and sent him Luke's test results and got the ball rolling. We asked him to define what he meant by "soon," and he said he'd like to see the surgery done within 10 days or so.
We went home and within a few hours purchased tickets and packed up to fly to the States the next day.
I took Luke to our pediatrician for his routine 2 month check up. He needed some shots and the Dr. checked all the normal stuff. As she was listening to his heart, she kept on listening for quite a while and then she said that she thought she heard a heart murmur. At this point she did not seem too worried and I wasn't either. She said that many children have murmurs and often outgrow them. But later on as she was plotting Luke's weight on his growth chart, she confirmed my recent worry that he was not gaining as he should be. With both of these concerns combined, she referred us to a Pediatric Cardiologist, who I called right away and drove straight there. Justice was with me, and Brian left work to meet us there. At this office Luke had his blood oxygen levels tested and an EKG given by the nurse, which showed some irregularity in his heartbeat. Then we went in to see the Dr. himself and he did an Echocardiogram, which is like an ultrasound of the heart. I was holding Luke and Brian and Justice were there too. The Dr. got the image on the screen and as soon as he saw it, his demeanor subtly changed and I knew something was quite wrong. He said a quiet "ohhh" and had a serious expression on his face. We braced ourselves for what he would say. As soon as he began speaking I interrupted him and just said to him in Arabic (so Justice wouldn't catch it) that we didn't want to scare Justice. He understood and proceeded, watching the way he phrased things, in English for our sakes to be sure we understood with all the medical terminology. (He was trained in the USA and has excellent English).
He explained that Luke has quite a large hole in his heart, between the left and right ventricles. (This is called VSD, or ventricular septal defect). It allows blood to flow from one side into the other, which it should not do. He then showed us that his aorta is significantly narrowed towards the top of the arch that it makes. This one is more concerning. (It is called Coarctation of the aorta).
It was clear that this needed some help right away. He recommended we come to Boston Children's Hospital soon, which is known to be the best for Pediatric Cardiology. While we were still there he emailed the head of the department at Boston Children's and sent him Luke's test results and got the ball rolling. We asked him to define what he meant by "soon," and he said he'd like to see the surgery done within 10 days or so.
We went home and within a few hours purchased tickets and packed up to fly to the States the next day.
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