pulmonary stenosis Archives - Tales from the Mommy Trenches

Tag Archives: pulmonary stenosis

Quick Update on Wren’s Heart

Some background on Wren’s heart situation Here, in case you missed it.

The pediatric cardiologist recommended that we take Wren in for EKGs and echocardiograms every six months due to the severity of her heart defect that was discovered at her birth, but not properly diagnosed until she was about six months old. So we have been dutifully taking her every six months and holding our breath as to how the stenosis (narrowing) of her pulmonary artery is faring as she grows.

Clutching my old doll I had growing up whose eyes would appear open or closed if you put warm or cold water on them. Anyone else had one of these growing up? read more

The Weight of Worry

My mom always says you are only as happy as your least happy child. I would like to add that you also worry for your children way more than they could ever worry about themselves. I know that worrying is life sucking and counter productive, but I have been struggling with it a lot lately.

Before I had children, not much weighed on my mind. Nothing really caused me to have crippling anxiety. Not even trying to get through law school and pass the bar. Once I started having children, I have become a huge bundle of nerves. read more

Wren’s ER Visit

It was the day before my birthday, and my sister and I were having a lovely time playing with my babies out on the patio. I was holding Wren and I heard her gagging. I immediately turned her to face me and she started vomiting. I quickly turned her away from me as she continued throwing up. It finally seemed like there was nothing left and when I turned her back toward me she was deathly pale and her lips had turned blue. I cleaned her up and laid her down in the play pen and she fell asleep. If it had been one of my other children, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But because of Wren’s heart issue, I figured I should call her pediatrician. I would have called her cardiologist, but they close the office during lunch time, and it was noon. As soon as I told the nurse on the phone Wren had pulmonary arterial stenosis, she cut me off and said I needed to take her to the emergency room. “Are you sure?”, I said. I did not want to be the hysterical mom in the ER who is there because her child threw up. “Yes, take her in immediately,” the nurse said firmly.
Wren before drastically changing the course of our day read more

How Thursday with the Pediatric Cardiologist went down

So I have had a day to process what happened at Wren’s appointment yesterday and spoken to a few of my friends and relatives who are in the medical field. Honestly, I spent yesterday in shock. I went into the appointment confident that her heart condition is mild and they would tell us no further action was needed and send us on our way. I didn’t even tell my husband to come with me because I figured the appointment would be unremarkable. But when the doctor starting talking not only surgery, but open heart surgery as a necessity for Wren, I couldn’t process it. read more

Wren’s cardiologist appointment

I went to the pediatric cardiologist with Wren today hoping for some good news. We found out three months ago that she has pulmonary stenosis, but possibly it was going to be mild enough to not require surgery.

Well, the outcome was not what we expected. Apparently the narrowing in her pulmonary valve has gotten worse, not better. And the doctor said that it would get worse as she gets older, and eventually the right side of her heart is going to be working too hard to compensate. (To all my readers with MDs, I hope I’m explaining this correctly). Eventually, she will need surgery to correct this. Probably using a patch instead of a catheter. read more

Wren: six months?!!

Dear Wren,

Today you are six months old. I know this is the common refrain among parents, but where does the time go?! You’ve grown from a newborn to a full-fledged baby!

Milestones: You are rolling around like a champ. Much sooner than your sisters did. You are ready to catch up and start playing with them! You babble and gurgle up a storm when someone is talking to you. You love grabbing your Sofie the Giraffe and shoving it in your mouth to gnaw on it. You also love splashing the water with your little hands in the bath and getting all startled when the water hits you in the face. You are not sitting up yet, but you are close! You also just started eating solids a little bit. You are undecided about whether you like them or not.
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