Samuel had an incredible cardiology visit last week! His pulmonary hypertension is "mild to absent!" Mild??? Absent??? What?! Those words haven't been used enough with Samuel's medical history :) Woo Hoo!!! (Pulmonary hypertension is abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs - lots of bad things can come from having it and honestly I was so excited to hear "mild to absent" that I completely forgot to ask if this was expected to happen.)
Samuel still has an ASD, (Atrial Septal Defect - basically a hole between the upper two chambers of his heart) but we're not surprised by that at all... nor are we terribly worried. I know, that sounds terrible, but it's fairly common especially compared to Samuel's other complications and it's something that shouldn't affect him in regards to growth or development. Plus, I think it can get fixed in the next year or so :) George had his ASD repaired Christmas 2009, along with his PDA, so it also eases the nerves that we've been here before. Remind me of that when it's actually time for surgery! Ha ha! (Samuel's PDA was repaired when he was still an itty bitty guy.)
Follow up with our cardiologist will be in 5-6 months - love it! If the pulmonary hypertension is still looking good, then Samuel may be able to come off his heart medicine. Love it even more :)
Just a little side note about Samuel's heart... even though it's not text-book-perfect (yet!), it's strength is one of the reasons he made it through "the bad days" in July 2009. It was able to keep working, with the help of a little nitric oxide, during a time when his little body was under the most intense stress. Many times the hearts of little babies like Samuel just can't keep going when faced with extreme injury to other major organs, including the lungs. The good news we received last week reminds me of all that Samuel's body and spirit have been through, and what an incredible little guy he is.
Samuel still has an ASD, (Atrial Septal Defect - basically a hole between the upper two chambers of his heart) but we're not surprised by that at all... nor are we terribly worried. I know, that sounds terrible, but it's fairly common especially compared to Samuel's other complications and it's something that shouldn't affect him in regards to growth or development. Plus, I think it can get fixed in the next year or so :) George had his ASD repaired Christmas 2009, along with his PDA, so it also eases the nerves that we've been here before. Remind me of that when it's actually time for surgery! Ha ha! (Samuel's PDA was repaired when he was still an itty bitty guy.)
Follow up with our cardiologist will be in 5-6 months - love it! If the pulmonary hypertension is still looking good, then Samuel may be able to come off his heart medicine. Love it even more :)
Just a little side note about Samuel's heart... even though it's not text-book-perfect (yet!), it's strength is one of the reasons he made it through "the bad days" in July 2009. It was able to keep working, with the help of a little nitric oxide, during a time when his little body was under the most intense stress. Many times the hearts of little babies like Samuel just can't keep going when faced with extreme injury to other major organs, including the lungs. The good news we received last week reminds me of all that Samuel's body and spirit have been through, and what an incredible little guy he is.
There's a new reader in town!
Maybe Samuel was looking for a book that defined pulmonary hypertension and ASD :) He cleared the entire book shelf!
I'm pretty sure he had a great time doing it, too!
He looked at every, 
... single,
... book!
And then some :)
George loves the animals :)
Olivia loves "her" slippers :) 
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