Today was the big cardiology appointment with Megan. We met with her wonderful doctor, Dr. Donald Malcolm at DeVos Children’s Hospital downtown. We were able to ask many questions as to his thoughts on what Megan’s heart was like when she was born, why China waited so long to do surgery on her, what is her heart like now, any future surgeries and more questions I can’t remember. Soooooo you want to know what he said???? Ok then, Megan has what is called Pulmonary Stenosis with a PDA (pulmonary valve defect & PDA is a valve that closes 72 hours after birth but Megan’s did not). She had her surgery in China at a normal age for this type of heart issue. The older the child is the better chance at survival because they are stronger. Megan had an EKG, heart ultrasound and couple of other test that I can’t remember at her apt (all without sedation!!! They usually do these test while the child is asleep at her age but in our case we used fruit snacks and fish crackers to try and keep her still.). While the doctors in China did a more aggressive approach to her surgery, Dr. Malcolm said they did a fantastic job and he does not see any future issues. YEAH HOoOooo!! We did ask about her protruding breast bone and if that would be fixed down the line… That would be a big fat NOPE! This would be something she will have for the rest of her life. Hopefully, it will become less noticeable as she grows. Dr. Malcolm did say that most kids who have heart surgery develop a sunken in chest bone but not our little girl. All in all, we go back in 6 to 9 months for the same sets of test to make sure there aren’t any new issues. After that Megan’s cardiologist visits will be few and far between!!!! Holy smokes, amazing!!!!!!! One thing Dr. Malcolm did say to us is that he was shocked when he read her file that China even did surgery with Megan’s condition on a girl. He said they are more likely to not do anything for girls. They’ll wait for them to be adopted and given medical care with their new family or these girls will just live out whatever life they have until their hearts fail. I don’t even have words to describe what I want to say about that…
As I was driving home I was thinking about how lucky we are, all while Megan was screaming to get out of the car (I’m such a multi-tasker!). Although we waited for 5 yrs for Megan we have been blessed with one truly amazing little girl. Not many of you know but back in December 2012 we switched from the healthy child line to the special needs line in hopes of not only getting a little girl faster but the fact that we could financially & medically help a child that needed special medical attention. Having Alex go thru all he did with 28 surgeries, umpteen doctor visits, hospital stays, and visiting out of state specialists helped us decide that we were the right people to help another child. Even being approved to enter the special needs line in December we were told that we could still wait over a year or more for a referral with the special needs we were open to. One year was far better that waiting the “unknown”. Well, we didn’t wait a year, we waited one month for a referral. Another amazing blessing!!!! Also, when Jeffrey went to visit Megan’s orphanage he was given a jade necklace that Megan’s birth parents put on her when they left her at the gate of the hospital in Jinan. We also were given a CD of what we thought was a video of her orphanage but it was a CD filled with about 50+ pictures of Megan at all ages – even shortly after the orphanage received her. Even though we know nothing about her parents she will always have that jade necklace and she will have many baby pictures of her. Most forever families get their new child with nothing. How lucky is she???
Just amazing!!! I can’t say it enough!!!!
Megan's jade necklace her birth parents left with her. The yellow tag is what the hospital notes to identify the necklace with Megan.
Our sweet baby girl!
Let the testing begin!
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