Peanut's Progress

So many of you know only parts of the story I figured this was the best way to inform everyone and it might cut down on some of the phone calls because we are getting so many......

Oct 12th - I took Maddie to the Urgent care for a bad cough due to a cold. The doctor just to be safe took a chest x-ray to make sure there was no fluid in her lungs and there was not. However he noticed an abnormality in her heart and was sending the info to her pediatrician. We already had an up coming appt.

Oct 14th - We went to the pediatrician appt got her shots and we were told Maddie had a boot shaped heart and that we have a pediatric cardiologist appt set up for us.

We did a little research and Maddie had none of the serious symptoms and the cough she had was not a symptom so we just figured we would wait it out and not stress about things.

Oct 29th - We went to the pediatric cardiologist appt and were immeadiately admitted into the hospital for testing and preping for surgery the next day. Maddie has a "coartation of the aorta" and a very rare form of it. Needless to say she had open heart surgery to repair her heart. The surgery was about 6-7 hrs from start to finish. It was a very long day.

The doctor's did repair her heart and her prognosis is very good. Maddie was born with this, however no one found it before now. Most children born with this never leave the hospital until the heart is repaired. Medically Maddie should not be alive. This has been an amazing 48 hours.

When we got to the hospital today she was doing very well. After surgery Wednesday she had three IV's, tubes coming from everywhere. It was kind of scary. Today she has one IV in her foot, chest tube, trach tube in her mouth and IV in her hand. She looked much better.

We had a bit of a scare with her breathing today but it was under control and she was responding very well to us before we left to take Katie and Jack Trick or Treating (actually Mamaw and Aunt Jacque took them).

Over all Maddie is doing very well and we hope she will be out of the hospital sooner than later as long as Maddie is ready to resume her life. Katie and Jack know that Maddie's heart is not shapped like theirs and that the Doctor's had to fix it. Once Maddie get's into a a progressive care room Katie and Jack can see her.

As for Phil and I we are coping. Phil will be working Monday and seeing her as often as possible. Once Maddie gets to a certian point I will have to be with her all the time, until then I will be working to stay busy.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! to Mike and Amy for just helping no questions asked, to Mamaw and Aunt Jacque for stepping in to help where ever needed and for all of you who added Maddie and our family to your prayer requests. We have a big immeadiate family and everyone was there for us and we very much appreciate it. We would have not made it through these last three days with out you.

I will post Maddie's progress as often as possible so that you can keep up and also to limit some of the phone calls. Please be patient if you do call we will call you back. It has been nice to know that all of you are out there. THANKS again for all the support.

There is one last request please pray for Dr. Alfred Kendrick. He is the pediatrician who works out of the Urgent Care we went to. Had it not been for his over cautiousness to do a chest xray to check for fluid in her lungs Maddie would not be here today. He saved her life.

TTFN-Chels