Charlotte's Heart

I get stuck sometimes on a blog post. I put up that post about Java, and then couldn't move past it. I kept thinking of new things to put up, new pictures, and I still haven't finished all the Hat or Not Hat pictures, but then I ask myself if any of those thoughts in my head or pictures I'm taking are worthy of moving past Java's death, and then realize they are not. Just about the only thing that makes the cut for me is another serious matter, and that is Charlotte's heart. She has a big heart, gives lots of nice head on the shoulder, "hug hug hugs." Her heart was also born with a defect, two defects in fact. When she was born, the doctors heard a heart murmur, and when they looked closer, they also found a hole in her heart between the two ventricles. The doctors said that the murmur was pretty common, and after talking to friends and family, I was surprised at how many of them had their own heart murmurs, or who used to have them and have grown out of them. The hole is a little more serious, and the doctors said we should give it three years to see if it can heal on it's own. So, she's had routine echo cardiograms, and sonograms, and so far, the hole is still there, which is a bummer. If she still has the hole by her third birthday they will do a small procedure where they take a device up through an artery in her groin, and place it in the hole, and her heart will grow around the device. They sent us home with a brochure. I'm sure the brochure it supposed to make us feel better, but the name on the front of the brochure alone scares the bejesus out of me. "A Patient's Guide To Transcatheter Closure of an Atrial Septal Defect using the AMPLATZER Septal Occluder System." Hmmm... If she doesn't get it fixed, one side of her heart could get bigger than the other, and work harder, and make her more tired.

So, I feel like we've been given one year to say some prayers. If she has to have the procedure, she'll have to spend the night in the hospital, and although the doctors say they do many of these, it still sounds scary. Charlotte can't sit still one minute, she won't even watch tv, so how is she going to stay on a hospital bed for such a length of time? If for some reason she isn't a good candidate for the device, or they give her the device and it doesn't work, she'll have to have open heart surgery. I can't imagine. In the brochure one of the Potential Risks is death. So, I guess I'm asking yout to say some prayers too. If you are reading this, please take some time and ask the Lord to bless our little Charlotte and let her little heart heal itself.