Little Lance's Heart

Caressa alluded to Lance's heart problems in her comment on the last post. I've not written about it here. But, there are a lot of aspects of life I haven't written about. Not because they are not important. Just because.

Lance was born with a congenital heart defect. He had a coarctation of the aorta, which is a narrowing of the major vessel that leaves the heart and carries all of the newly oxygenated blood to the body. This creates hypertension in the upper extremities and hypotension in the lower extremities. It can lead to congestive heart failure and sudden death if undetected and uncorrected.

Lance's defect was discovered when he was 10 months old. He had corrective surgery immediately upon discovery (he had a subclavian flap procedure). We were told at the time that he would recover fully, but there was a chance that his aorta could re-narrow.

It has been about 7 & 1/2 years since then. Each check up with the cardiologist has been very good, overall. The last time we saw them, they did an echocardiogram and discovered he also had another congenital heart defect that hadn't been detected to that point called a bicuspid aortic valve. Normally, the aortic valve has 3 flaps; Lance's has only 2. At the time it was discovered, they told us it was nothing to worry about at the time and they would just keep watching him. In fact, they told us he was doing so well that we should not come back for 2 years.

Then I took him back last week (it had been 2 years). And, the appointment was less than reassuring. While the cardiologist still thinks there is nothing that needs to be done immediately, he was noticeably concerned about a couple aspects of the exam. He encouraged us to keep Lance away from certain activities and shortened our follow up time to 1 year again.

They are worried about two things, I gather. One is the re-narrowing of the original aortic defect. The second is the decrease in diameter of the bicuspid valve - this could result in a dilated aorta distal to the valve, possibly leading to rupture of the aorta.

While I am trying to trust the doctor - he is from one of the most respected pediatric cardiologist groups in the country - it was hard to leave the office and agree to "act normally" for a whole year without another checkup. I have yet been able to go a day since without thinking about little Lance's heart.

My prayer is that we will go back in a year and all of the tests at that time will show that both the repaired site of the aorta and the aortic valve are holding up wonderfully. In the long term, I pray for no more heart surgeries for little Lance - ever. That's a big prayer; but God is a big God.