Pediatric Cardiologist Appt

Steve and I made the trip to St.Petersburg yesterday to see the Pediatric Cardiologist. Last week when we were at the MFM Dr appt he said that the heart looked really good, so I really wasn't expecting to hear anything but good news.

The news wasn't good but it definitely could have been worse. They found 2 problems during the echocardiogram. They believe that Adam has a bicuspid aortic valve. Basically, the aortic valve is one of the valves in the heart. Usually the valves have 3 "leaflets" but Adam only has 2. Sometimes people can go on to live normal lives until they are much older with this condition, Other times it needs to be treated early. There isn't a way for them to tell which category Adam will fall into until after he is born. The Cardiologist didn't seem to make a big deal of this finding, which was actually comforting because if it had been awful news, he would have gone over it in greater detail than just telling us about this so casually.

The other problem that they found was the aorta in Adam's heart seems to be to narrow. Until he is born, it cannot be accurately diagnosed but he is leading towards a condition called Coarctation of the Aorta. This condition will require surgery shortly after he is born. The Dr said that it is not open heart surgery, that they can just make several incisions in the chest and fix the aorta that way.

We have to follow up with the cardiologist in a month for another fetal echocardiogram. I really don't mind going to St.Pete to have these tests done. It is such a different place than Miami. It is cleaned and organized. I feel much better about having Adam there instead of Miami.

Had my regular OB appt today. It was pretty much uneventful. I had to drink the gross glucose drink to test for Gestational Diabetes. It took the Dr a couple minutes to find the heartbeat because Adam is so low compared to where babies usually are at this point. But once he found it, it was a good 135 beats per minute. My OB was concerned about the fluid. He said that usually when the fluid gets low, they will just induce or do a c-section to get the baby out to avoid any cord compression. I will take to the MFM Dr about this on Thursday, to see what his opinion is.

Please pray for kidney function and fluid! I have to keep Adam in as long as possible so that he will have a better chance of surviving the surgeries that he needs!