Six weeks post-op

Just a quick update. Susannah was six weeks post-op on March 12th. She's done well at all of her follow-up appointments. Our last checkup last week at the cardiologist she had gained almost half a pound from three weeks before that. He increased her calories again and said to feed her more regular food, so we've been working on that. He's not thrilled with her weight gain, but she is following a new curve upward, so he was okay with not doing anything drastic (aka feeding tubes) at this point. He really wants her to "catch up" to where she should be, but I don't see that happening. My other kids were between 18months to 2 years before they ended up back on the curve that they started on, so I imagine it'll take her a little longer to "catch up" than it did them. He also said we didn't have to come for FOUR WEEKS!!! That's the longest we'll have had between cardiologist visits since November! And another thing off topic, we don't have any appointments of any kind this week or next!!!! Such a nice little break!! I should write another post about that someday. Back to Susannah, her little heart is doing ok. The tricuspid regurgitation is mild to moderate, before the PA banding it was moderate to severe. The PDA closure is leaking a tiny bit, he said it wasn't uncommon for that to happen. He didn't seem concerned about it. She was in heart block this visit. She seems to tolerate it fine. She's started crawling and pulling up on things. She is literally all over the entire house. She will go and find her big brothers and sister wherever they are and play with them. She doesn't show any symptoms of tiring out or anything. She still doesn't eat a whole lot, so that is still a concern. She doesn't tire out, she's just done and not interested. He increased her Enalapril the visit before this one, but the Lasix he's kept the same. We've discontinued the Motrin. She was on that for four weeks post-op for inflammation, and we're past that and there weren't any effusions on the ECHO so he was good with that! They're saying 6 months to a year until her ventricle is ready for the big surgery. It depends on how fast she grows and how well her ventricle responds to the band and strengthens.  She's a happy little girl! We're so thankful for her!

before surgery (6 1/2 mon. old)

 

6 weeks post-op (8 months old)

 Happily watching big brothers and sister playing outside!!