The Scariest News

Last week Rowdy and I got the scariest news of our lives. Our 11 month old son is going to have to have open heart surgery. I took him in for a routine well baby exam a few months ago. We were seeing a new pediatrician and I wasn't familiar with her "normal" procedures. She began listening to Logan's heart and listened intently for a long time. She then proceeds to tell me that she thought she could hear a faint murmur but wasn't sure because his heart was beating fast, probably trying to fight off an ear infection. We went back to the doctor for a post ear infection follow up where she listened to his hear more intently than the first time and for what felt like 30 min. She then told me she wanted Logan to have a chest x-ray and that she is referring us to a cardiologist to have an echocardiogram done.

I was a nervous wreck at the cardiologist. My mom went with me to the appointment because Rowdy has still out of town at a military school. Logan did wonderfully during his 30 min echo where I had to hold him still, he made mommy proud! Afterwards, while waiting for the doctor to come in and tell us that Logan has a small murmur that he will grow out of and it is nothing to worry about, a nurse appears to do an EKG. This was my first red flag that something was not right. Not too much time later the cardiologist comes into the room and proceeds to tell us that Logan an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and a malformation of the Mitral Valve (MV) and he will need surgery to correct it. In other words, Logan has 2 holes in his heart, one in the muscle wall that separates the left and right upper chambers of the heart and the other a notch in the MV that is preventing full closure of the valve on the left side of his heart.

The doctor is not too concerned with the MV malformation. She said it does not appear to be leaking very much and if you repair it we could have a bigger problem on our hands. They will however look at the MV during surgery to see if it in fact does need to be repaired. The ASD will be patched with a pericardium, a patch made from the membrane that surrounds Logan's heart. We were told that after the surgery we will be in the hospital for 1-2 weeks and full recovery will be 6 weeks.

At this time we do not have the surgery scheduled. Rowdy and I have an appointment Monday to meet with the surgeons to go over the procedure. We will schedule the surgery at that appointment. We are hoping we can schedule it for after Logan's 1st birthday, Jan 10. The surgery will be at the St. Francis Children's Hospital in Tulsa.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and please do not stop praying for my little man. Rowdy and I are trusting God and know that he is holding Logan in his hands.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to others. The Lord is at hand; do not worry or be anxious about anything, but everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.

Philippians 4:4-6