This morning my sweet baby daughter and I went to her follow-up appointment with her heart doctor, Dr. Guillermo Crespo. Katie has a condition called “Aortic Stenosis”, which she was born with. The short explanation of it is that one of her chambers is so small that it’s like she has two heart chambers instead of three. When she was a lot younger, it was expected that she’d have to have surgery/valve replacement by the time she was 18; however, her yearly Echocardiograms have shown that the condition hasn’t changed, and she has always felt fine, so one year turned into another, then another, then…… Now she’s 23 and no surgery yet.
A few months ago, she started to have some “flutterings”, so we made an appointment to see Dr.Crespo, where he took another Echo, then put her on a heart monitor for a month. Her follow-up from those “events” was this morning, and we found out a lot of information! The girl is amazing. This is how he explained it: a normal heart opening is about the size of a 50-cent piece. Her heart opening is about the size of a dime. The normal heart operates at about a “10” (not quite sure how to explain this since he was using a diagram, and I’m not sure if the numbers he was saying pertained to the percentage of not working or what, but just go with me here…). So, anyway, the normal heart is a “10”; once a heart reaches “60”, they usually operate/replace the valve because the patient is in very high distress, can’t get comfortable, and has a hard time functioning and breathing enough to live; Katie is at an “80”, yet she feels fine!!
~~Let me just insert here that anyone who doesn’t believe in the power of prayer or the presence of God just has to look at Katie and their mind would have to be changed.~~
Her Echocardiograms have been in the same range for the past 7 or 8 years, so Dr. Crespo is not seeing any significant change, but he wants to start following her every 6 months now instead of yearly. However, he’s cutely baffled by her because every time he asks her how she feels, she always replies with her wonderfully happy, upbeat “fine!”. Dr. Crespo is from either Brazil or Guatemala, or someplace down there, because he has that wonderful South American accent. He’s so handsome that Katie and I have decided to fight over him, but since he’s getting some gorgeous gray in his jet black hair, I think I’m going to win the battle since he might actually be closer to my age!! ha ha ha
In all honesty, though, he is a great doctor because he spends so much time explaining things and making both of us comfortable. He said the operation can technically be done at any time, but he’d prefer “we” wait as long as possible since every year brings more medical advances in how this will be handled. However, she can’t wait too long because it will stress the heart too much if the heart is too “high a number” (my words, since I’m not a doctor). Dr. Crespo told Katie to keep an eye on her health, continue exercising as she has been since she started college, and if she feels anything heart-related to call him immediately. All common sense advice, and the same as he’s been saying, which is why we’ve made a few trips to the ER in the past few months.
I really think she will have the operation at least by the next six month check-up, since she has beaten the odds all these many years because of her strict exercising. But, if she’s at an “80” now, and he doesn’t want it to get too much worse, then the Echo is going to have to be the determining factor, not how she’s feeling. My sunny girl will always answer “Fine” to how she’s feeling. I love, love, love my sweet girl.
So, for now, the prayers continue….both of asking for His guidance and protection, and of gratitude and thankfulness for what He is continuing to do. It’s all in God’s time.
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