Melaina's Heart

I've been absent for quite some time.  I've enjoyed these past few months being home with my girls, but my time is over.  I'm back to work full time.

It's bitter sweet for me because I love my job & the girls love being in school with a set routine.

Alot has been going on in our world.

Melaina continues to make progress in her environment.

She's walking independently at all times now!

We gradually transitioned her to a new preschool last week. So far, so good. She seems to be extremely happy when I pick her up & extremely exhausted as well.

She started OT & that's not going so well. Our original plan was to have services in our home, but Melaina will NOT work with the therapist. She only wants me to hold her or be on my lap.

The therapist is now going to Melaina's preschool & I join them 30 minutes later.

We'll see how this goes.

Melaina was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot.  She became cyanotic as an infant, was abandoned by her parents, & had heart surgery at the age of 5 months to repair her heart.

The classic form includes four defects of the heart and its major blood vessels:


•Ventricular septal defect (hole between the right and left ventricles)
•Narrowing of the pulmonary outflow tract (the valve and artery that connect the heart with the lungs)
•Overriding aorta (the artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the body) that is shifted over the right ventricle and ventricular septal defect, instead of coming out only from the left ventricle
•Thickened wall of the right ventricle (right ventricular hypertrophy)




When we took Melaina to the cardiologists (we got a second opinion), both dr's agreed that it appeared that she didn't have TOF, only a repaired ventricular septal defect (VSD, hole in the heart), based on what was seen on the echo.
They recommended further testing to confirm/diagnose her correctly.
She had a sedated cardiac MRI & a lung perfusion test a few weeks ago.
Based on the MRI results, she has TOF, but only has 2 of the 4 defects, so a mild version per se.
She had a VSD & has an overriding aorta.
She does not have pulmonary valve stenosis or an enlarged right ventricle.
What does that mean? 
She most likely will not need any additional surgeries in the future as long as her pulmonary valve remains normal.
Her heart & lungs are functioning completely normal!
They want to see her back in a year for an echo & then possibly see her every few years!
She's perfectly healthy!