september 4th

     Today was our second echo after about an hour of imaging the sonographer went to turn in her report to the team of cardiologists. After waiting a short time Dr. Heydarian (cardiologist) came in to speak with us. She began to draw images on a dry-erase board of what is going on with Brooklyns' heart. She told us how they see another hole in her atrium(asd).With the other hole found in her heart from a previous echo she was now diagnosed with AV canal defect. She went on to tell us that they do not see where her pulmonary artery is connected to her right ventricle. This diagnosed Brooklyn with pulmonary atresia, which will now be Brooklyn's biggest concern. This diagnosis requires Brooklyn to start on prostaglandins immediately after birth to keep the DA(ductus arteriosis) open. The DA is a blood vessel connecting the pulmonary artery to the aortic arch. It allows most of the blood from the RV(right ventricle) to bypass the fetus' fluid filled non functioning lungs. The DA starts to close immediately after birth but for Brooklyn we need it to stay open. This is where the prostaglandins come in. Keeping the DA open is Brooklyn's LIFELINE until she can undergo open heart surgery. At this point we are not sure of exactly how many or what surgeries she will need to have. Once she arrives they will do an echo, chest x-ray, abdominal x-ray and an MRI to get better images of exactly what is going on with her. Dr. Heydarian predicted that the first surgery Brooklyn would undergo would be a "shunt" from her Aorta to her pulmonary artery. Once again we left the Dr's. office sad and overwhelmed  Yet again we were told of  more issues our daughter has and what a tough she road will face after birth.
  We scheduled our next echo for 10/16. We would then have a meeting with Dr. Morales(cardiothoracic surgeon) and also tour the CICU.  All i could do now is research and find out as much as i could about Brooklyns' diagnosis to prepare us for what is to come.
   Through my research I kept coming across the name of a surgeon at Boston Childrens Hospital, Dr. Pedro Del Nido and he is the #1 pediatric cardiac surgeon and he is also #1 for  Heterotaxy.  Boston Childrens Hospital is also  the #1 hospital for Heterotaxy. This really peaked our interest.