Nothing But Good News!

Recently, my baby boy was seen by an occupational therapist to evaluate his development (mainly his oral motor issues).  She was very encouraging, and after completing the evaluation, stated that he scored at a 6 month level developmentally.  Considering he was only 7 months old (but his adjusted age was 4 1/2 months old), this was truly amazing!  And although he is really right on track developmentally, he does have some oral motor issues (a sensitive gag reflex) that are affecting his eating, so she is going to start seeing him to help with that and teach me what to do!  (AND this is part of the services that he receives from ECI, so it will be completely free, which is such a blessing to us!)

Even better news than that, was the news we received from the cardiologist.  We had another follow up visit to do additional tests and look at his heart on an echocardiogram.  Because we still do not know the cause of his hypertension, we were afraid it could be caused by some other heart defect such as a small VSD (a hole in the heart) or coarctation (narrowing) of his aorta.  Because the hypertension did not begin until after his heart surgery, it was possible that there was some other heart defect that was so small it did not cause problems until the PDA was closed (which would have put more pressure on an additional hole, or a narrow aorta). 

HOWEVER, after looking at a very thorough echo, everything looked absolutely perfect.  The aorta looked exactly the way it was supposed to, and there are NO signs of any other holes.  Everything looked healthy, his circulation is great, and the cardiologist did not even hear a small murmur when he listened to his chest.  Therefore, he officially has a completely healthy heart, will not be needing any more heart surgery, AND no longer requires follow up with his cardiologist! 

So my baby has now graduated from the cardiology department, and gets stronger every single day!!  Thank you so much for the continued prayers.  I know that he will be completely healthy and hypertension free (and off his medication) before we know it!!