We have been blessed with a beautiful boy, born February 2009. But he was born with 'a broken heart'. Connor was diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), Pulmonary Stenosis (PS)and multiple Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)of his heart. In plain English, TGA is that the plumbing to his heart was back to front. This meant that he wouldn't be able to oxygenate his blood because the blood flow was all back to front. PS is that there is muscle growth around his valve causing restriction of blood flow, and VSD is holes in his heart. All in all, our baby boy was born with a life threatening heart condition. Thankfully in this day and age they were able to firstly, detect this at our 19 week scan, and secondly, they could plan and do surgery to correct it.
Connor was born at Monash hospital in Melbourne. His first surgery was when he was an hour old. He had what was called "a Balloon Septostomy". A non invasive, thru the groin surgery to open up the holes in his heart. This was so the 'good' blood and the 'bad' blood could mix... in the hope that it would increase his oxygen levels in his blood. This worked for some time, however, at 3 months of age, Connor went in for major open heart surgery. This time it was at the Royal Childrens Hospital, Melbourne. They performed a huge 12 hour operation to correct his plumbing, remove some of the muscle growth and close the holes in his heart. Prayers were answered, and within 12 days, we were back home with a healthy little boy.
We went back and forth to Melbourne, doctors, nurses, hospitals etc, then after a scan in Nov '10, they noticed that the narrowing around his valve had returned. So May '11, we went back for Connor's 3rd Surgery. They have now put a stent in to open up his valve. This is somewhat of a temporary fix, but it should 'buy' us a few years before more surgery is required. He will need a valve replacement, and possibly a Coronary Artery bypass, but we'll jump that when we have too!!
How I came about to writing all of this was because, tomorrow we were supposed to be flying to Melbourne for a follow up check up. Unfortunately, Connor has had temps thru the night, so we've had to cancel. We will be flying over early August now. But I'm happy to report that since his last operation, he has been doing very well. He has BUNDLES of energy and continues to be a happy little chappy.
Connor loves flying... this next trip over will be his 14th flight!!!