1st Meeting w/ Cardiologist Team

Here's an update regarding our 1st meeting with the Cardiologist Matt Schwartz & Nurse Coordinator Kathleen Reeves.  May not be in the right order as it was just me writing down everything as fast as I could!

• Dana and I are in Room 8410 for those who want to stop by and visit.  Dana will be in here for 2-3 days most likely recovering from the C-section.  We're here but the baby is not as it's in the NICU so plan a visit with us if you'd like.
• Echocardiagram was done right after Finn got to the NICU and settled into his new home and Dr Schwartz came to our room to explain what exactly they saw so here it is: 
• Confirmed there is a hole b/w the left/right ventrical walls and the pulmonary valve has limited blood flow to the lungs.
• Reason why the pulmonary valve is having this issue is that the muscle tissue that was supposed to be apart of the wall between the left and right ventricle walls shifted during development and it shifted over to where the pulmonary valve is causing the limited blood flow.  Because the muscle blocked the valve during development the valve didn't grow tot he proper size and is now undersized.
• We can fix this by going in and removing this extra muscle tissue exposing the underdeveloped pulmonary valve and then splaying open the valve and placing a patch on the valve so it's much wider in diameter.
• This fix would be good until early/late adolescence.  
• We would know when to do a valve replacement after doing annual checkups and watching the level of blood backflow into the heart chamber (pulmonary valve regurgitation).  Because the valve is underdeveloped that means blood will be trickling back into the chamber (and it's not supposed to do that).  It's not a terrible thing this is happening but eventually the chamber in the heart will begin to have too much blood backflow and things will start slowing down (Finn will be slugish) and getting less oxygen.  This will be the determining factor of when we will do the upgrade so until then we just do check ups and live life like any crazy boy does growing up.
• Based off the limited bloodflow levels, the Dr's feel if we turned off medicine that is keeping the dutus open, the oxygen levels would go down.
• Surgery will be schedule for sometime early next week (will know tomorrow after speaking to surgery team).
• NICU will start feeding baby later tonight/tomorrow with moms milk
• Based on on the proposed procedures coming up, Dr's told us to anticipate planning to stay for 3-4 weeks in hospital 

Chilling in the NICU..toasty warm and being a good little boy

Auntie Cindy visiting w/ Finn

Holy TOES!!!!!