It's amazing what kind of help people offer when you say the words "heart" and "procedure/operation." About a year and a half ago Angel went in to test for some rare adrenal cancer. Her father was diagnosed with it (years ago while we were planning our wedding - there was not difficulty in remove it) and apparently its genetic, so the whole family got tested. When Angel got her tests back they said, "Good news! You don't have adrenal cancer. You do have a hole in your heart." This was an unexpected diagnosis but it did explain some things. She had asthma and heart burn type symptoms but medicine never helped. She could tell the time up to 10:00 pm based on how tired she was. (Really. It was eerie.) It was also difficult for her to lose weight despite rigorous exercise and dieting. It made sense.
She went in for additional tests including one called the bubble test. The doctor shakes up a saline solution and puts it into the blood stream and they count the bubbles that aren't filtered by the lungs. The more bubbles there are the bigger the hole. When Angel had the test done they couldn't count the bubbles because there were too many of them. She was scheduled to get a scope done prior to a full procedure when we found out we were expecting Roo. They said to wait off until after the baby was born.
Now, a year later and with our out of pocket maximum achieved on our insurance we were able to get her in for the procedure. Below is a picture of what they put in her. It's called a septal occluder and the one they put in Angel was 30mm. I told her that I knew of tanks with a smaller gun that that. Ok, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle is an IFV not a AFV, but still. The procedure happen last week and since day one with the plug she has felt much more energy. They went in through the femoral artery and it went slick as a whistle. The Relief Society brought us dinner for three nights, which was very nice of them, and lots of people have asked about her. Some were surprised to see her at church yesterday. I think it boils down to the fact that the heart is a scary organ. It's so important to life that anything wrong with it is cause of grave concern. For Angel, this operation has provided her with additional energy she didn't know she could have.
She went in for additional tests including one called the bubble test. The doctor shakes up a saline solution and puts it into the blood stream and they count the bubbles that aren't filtered by the lungs. The more bubbles there are the bigger the hole. When Angel had the test done they couldn't count the bubbles because there were too many of them. She was scheduled to get a scope done prior to a full procedure when we found out we were expecting Roo. They said to wait off until after the baby was born.
Now, a year later and with our out of pocket maximum achieved on our insurance we were able to get her in for the procedure. Below is a picture of what they put in her. It's called a septal occluder and the one they put in Angel was 30mm. I told her that I knew of tanks with a smaller gun that that. Ok, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle is an IFV not a AFV, but still. The procedure happen last week and since day one with the plug she has felt much more energy. They went in through the femoral artery and it went slick as a whistle. The Relief Society brought us dinner for three nights, which was very nice of them, and lots of people have asked about her. Some were surprised to see her at church yesterday. I think it boils down to the fact that the heart is a scary organ. It's so important to life that anything wrong with it is cause of grave concern. For Angel, this operation has provided her with additional energy she didn't know she could have.
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