I didn't want to be late and we didn't exactly know where we were going, so we took off for Birmingham two hours before the appointment time of 11:00. It doesn't take two hours to get where we were going and we busted up in that place at 10:10. But it was fine..... Mary had a full bag of Cheerios, her Brown Bear Brown Bear book, and a whole mess of stickers. She toddled around that place, made nice with the other waiting patients, looked at herself in the mirror of the kid area, and peered into every trash can they had looking for some treasures. (We gotta break her of this trash can business..... it's gross.)
Right at 11, they called us back. Weight check (23.7 pounds!), chest Xray, EKG, and Echocardiogram were all done in a matter of about 10 minutes. These people are organized and FAST. The ONLY time Mary cried is when we had to take her dress off. Girlfriend looked around, saw NO bathtub, and decided this was completely inappropriate and unnecessary..... but she got over it quickly. Dad was her "medical table"..... he would lay down on the table or sit down in the chair and she would sit on HIM. That made it a lot less scary!
When the nurse asked me if we had any records of her medical past, I pulled out my pink binder that has EVERYTHING we know medically about our girl.... all in about 5 plastic sleeves. FIVE. Like FIVE pieces of paper. We don't know much about the medical history of our girl. For the first time, when filling out the initial paperwork for Dr. Romp's office, it asked for Medical History.... I put UNKNOWN. It also asked for Family History.... again.... UNKNOWN. Made me a little sad..... but I'm happy that we're now getting more pieces to her little puzzle. And boy, did Dr. Romp deliver!
As soon as that nurse walked out to make copies of our five little pieces of paper, I figured we'd be sitting in that room a while. NOPE. In walked Dr. Romp. He is the NICEST man. He handed Mary his stethoscope and she started listening to everyone's heart. When he turned off the lights and started to do her ultrasound (test number FOUR for the day), Mary got a little squirmy..... but when the nurse pulled out the BUBBLES, all was well again.
Dr. Romp looked over Mary's heart with great care. He read the information we had, looked at the X-ray (where a TINY shiny spot tells a very BIG story of her past) and began to tell us what he believes to be the story of Mary's heart.
Mary was indeed born with a VSD.... and a rather large one apparently, since smaller VSDs are usually left to heal on their own. Surgical intervention is usually only used on the larger defects. Since Mary's surgery was done so early (3 months), he believes that she must have been in some distress, most likely breathing distress, according to her file. Dr. Romp also explained that the location of Mary's VSD would have made it very hard for a surgeon to a) locate it and b) reach it during surgery to repair. SO...... Mary did NOT have the traditional open heart surgery. Instead, Dr. Romp strongly believes that she was the recipient of a hybrid procedure that involves a much smaller opening in the chest.... to just expose the heart and the VSD. Then, through a catheter, a metal patch was put on the opening in the wall of the heart.
Dr. Romp was quite intrigued by the use of this cutting-edge technology procedure. Apparently, there have only been about a dozen done at UAB compared to hundreds of thousands of open heart surgeries. His guess as to why they chose this procedure was one of two things: either the doctors in Shanghai were showing off their advanced medical techniques or, more likely, the location of the VSD gave them no other choice and was her only option.
Whatever the reason, we are THANKFUL for the wonderful care that she received before the Lord placed her in our arms. Dr. Romp declared Mary's ticker PERFECTLY HEALTHY. She will NOT require additional surgery as she grows since her heart tissue will simply grow around the metal plate. He said her heart was functioning beautifully and she was to be treated as a healthy child with NO heart problems whatsoever. She can ride roller coasters, take anesthesia, go through metal detectors, run, play, take medicine, and BE A KID without any restrictions at all!
Oh, mercy..... we are praising the Lord over here!!!
Dr. Romp did recommend that Mary always have a cardiologist as part of her medical team. We will go every two years for check ups since her history DOES include CHD, but he anticipates no problems in her future that are heart related (other than explaining to anyone who MIGHT do an X-ray on her in her life that the shiny thing is actually a metal plate inserted into her heart in Shanghai, China during a rare, highly technological heart surgery!)
So, our sweet little firecracker has a GREAT medical and developmental report card so far. The IAC has passed her with flying colors (well, except for that pesky PARASITE that she's being treated for), and now her pediatric cardiologist has given her the green light. Thursday, we will visit with our local ENT to peek into those ears and take a look at those tonsils, and later in September, we'll get her eyes checked.... so we're hoping for a great report from those folks as well.
Thank you so much to ALL of you who continue to pray for Mary.
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