Difficult week...

Sorry for going without a post for so long. This has been a very upsetting week for us. When our Knittybaby was born, he had a heart murmur, which is quite common in newborns. By his two month check up, it was still there so our GP ordered an echocardiogram to check it out. I honestly thought it was just double checking, and it would be fine. However, it is not. Turns out our litle guy has a congenital heart defect called Coarctation of the Aorta. What this means is that his aorta is pinched, which results in a difference in blood pressure in the upper and lower body. Luckily, his is not as severe as many babies as he has no physical symptoms other than the murmur and blood pressure (many babies with very severe versions of this have emergency surgery just days old). However, he will be needing heart surgery sometime before his first birthday. If the aorta is repaired, his prognosis is good although he will need to be under the care of a cardiologist for the rest of his life. If not repaired it will most likely result in heart failure in his 40's or 50's and carries a lot of risk throughout his life, so the surgery is very important.

To make things even worse, this may mess up my plans to stay home with the boys. I had planned on not returning to the classroom this fall. We were going to buy private insurance as Hubby works for a very small business and has no benefits, but with this condition it may not be possible. It's so hard to realize that even with the surgery this will be something he will carry with him his whole life, that as perfect as he seems he has something very wrong.....

Sorry to have such a bummer of a post, but it really helps to talk and write about it. Funny how people cope with things. What have I been doing? Planning what kind of special blanket I will knit for him for the surgery and hospital stay. Something with hearts...it makes me cry just thinking about it but it's so important to me that he has it when the time for surgery comes.