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On May 4, 2009, Josh and I discovered that our soon to be little girl, due on August 25th, would be born with a CHD known as HLHS (hypo-plastic left heart syndrome). Upon hearing "something is wrong with your baby's heart" our lives changed completely. Our little Ruth Elizabeth was brought into this world on August 18, 2009. She was delivered via c-section and rushed immediately from Barnes to Childrens' Hospital for a cardiac cath intervention. Her arial septum was reopened and a week later, Ruthie underwent her first open heart surgery, the Norwood. Unfortunately, Ruthie was not able to survive on her Norwood heart and the Glenn procedure would not work for her. Ruthie was placed on the heart transplant list Feb.3, 2010. After waiting in SLCH, Ruthie received a new heart on July 5, 2010. We are so humbly blessed to receive this gift of life. We now are on the road to recovery. We have had our ups and downs. We have become SLCH regulars due to countless hospital stays and ER visits. We are learning how to manage life outside of SLCH and with another little girl. Now that we have two children, we are learning the about being a heart FAMILY.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Update: Changing plans, again!

So, a little change in plans.
Dr. H, Ruthie's surgeon, strongly suggests that we go ahead and take care of her diaphragm today. Dr. C and him agree that her heart function is fine. They are more concerned that her paralyzed diaphragm will continue to cause her respiratory issues in the future.

With that being said, here's the plan...

Ruthie will go to the OR this afternoon. She will have a procedure, know as diaphragmatic plication, done today. This procedure will "pin" down the right side of Ruth's diaphragm. This in turn, will help her lungs expand and work much better. They will also re-inflate her lung while in the OR. Right now, her paralyzed diaphragm is working against her lung. It is causing her to have shortness of breath and thus requiring more o2. This is why her lung slighly collasped yesterday.

On Tuesday, August 17th Ruthie will go in (first case 7:30 am) for her biopsy/ heart cath. After we have numbers from the biopsy and after Ruthie recovers from the Cath Lab, she will be able to come home (fingers crossed). So barring any complications, we should still be home either the night before or the morning of her 1st Birthday!

I will let you know once we get in the OR.

Please continue to pray for her strength.
Pray for guidance and wisdom for her doctors and nurses.
We trust! We believe!

Hugs!
Laura
Heart Hugs from on

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