Surgery or not??

Congenital heart disease is a defect of the heart that occurs before birth. It is actually a pretty common occurrence. Statistics show that 8-10 out of every 1,000 children are born with some kind of defect, although most of those are usually not caught at birth. To diagnose a defect, a doctor must first hear a heart murmur. A murmur is the sound of your heart beating at an abnormal pace. If the doctor feels that you need further tests, you will be sent to a specialist. Some of the tests that are done include an echocardiogram, chest x-ray, MRI, cardiac catheterization, and an EKG. After these tests are done the specialist will be able to explain what kind of defect you have. Defects range from very mild to some being pretty extreme. The one that I am going to talk about is an ASD (Atrial Septal Defect). If you would like to find out about the others also, click here.

An ASD is a hole in the wall that separates or divides the heart. When a normal heart operates, blood going through the right atrium,which is the top portion of the heart, is low in oxygen. This blood then flows through to the right ventricle, which is on the bottom portion of the heart. Then it travels to the lungs and becomes rich in oxygen. It then goes to the left atrium and then the left ventricle, where it is pumped to the rest of the body. The heart contains a wall between the two atria which is called an atrium septrum. When a person is diagnosed with an ASD, they have a hole in that wall. This causes the oxygen rich blood to pour into the atrium with the poor oxygenated blood. This makes the blood flow that goes to the lungs increase.

Most children who are diagnosed with this will not have any symptoms, and in time the hole will close on its own. Some children who have larger holes that will not repair themselves may need to undergo a procedure to have it closed. If the hole is not closed it may cause problems later in life, such as abnormal heart beat and the ability the heart can pump the blood. There is also an increased risk for a stroke. Most of the time the hole can be closed by putting a catheter into the blood vessel that leads to the heart and placing an implant at the hole that closes it.

So, now that you have read all about what an ASD is, I can explain why I want to know everything that I can about this defect. My daughter was born with 3 holes in her heart. As most parents would be, I was horrified at the thought of this. We followed through with the checkups and the tests. She sees the specialist every 6 months. At her third checkup, she was a year old, and one of the holes had completely closed on its own. This was a GREAT day! She still had 2 but one had gotten smaller. She will be 3 in April and she still has the 2 holes. One is very small, but the other is still pretty large. I am glad that science has come a long way to create a simple procedure, but it is still a procedure, and there are always risks. I am still hanging on to hope, and I hope that a miracle can happen. If a surgery has to be performed, I will put all of my trust in God, and know that it has to be done for my daughter to live a healthy life as an adult.