Asher at 3 weeks

 

Well, it’s Friday – the ONLY day this week that Asher has not had an appointment with a specialist…so we slept in :-)   I wish we could get “frequent flyer miles” for running all over town to different doctor’s offices!

Following up on this weeks’ previous blog (False Start), we went back to the Urologist yesterday and got everything all fixed up with Asher’s manhood. So now we have one surgery checked off the list with absolutely no complications at all. They said he didn’t even cry during the surgery! (they did numb him up real good “down there”)

Asher also had his 2-week check-up at his pediatrician’s office this week. It was super encouraging for us - he had gained over 1oz. a day since we left the hospital! He’s eating well, his color is good, his breathing is normal, and everything else checked out just like a normal 2-week-old baby. If we didn’t have pictures of his broken heart, we wouldn’t know anything was out of the ordinary.

OK, now for the big news of the week: on Wednesday we had our first follow-up visit with Asher’s pediatric cardiologist. This visit made me so thankful that God calls people to be in the medical field. Dr. Blair Robinson and his entire staff were AWESOME; we must have asked 100 questions, but we received a thoughtful & sincere answer every single time. As far as Asher’s exam, we received some news that we were expecting as well as some news that we were not expecting.

EXPECTED:  Asher’s O2 saturation was lower (88%-90%). Again, this means that only 88%-90% of his blood is carrying O2 to his body due to the defects in his heart that is blocking some blood from picking up O2 in the lungs. This number will continue to go down as his heart grows and the defects become more pronounced.

NOT EXPECTED:  Asher’s low weight has finally been mentioned as a potential problem. Dr. Robinson told us that Asher was in a “gray area” in regards to his weight. They would like for him to be at 10lbs. before the complete repair surgery takes place. However, if his heart digresses to a point where a repair has to be made and Asher is not at 10lbs., then we would be looking at 2 options: 1) a higher-risk open heart surgery on such a little guy, or 2) a temporary fix involving surgery to put a shunt in Asher’s heart (and then the complete repair surgery would still come at a later date).   *Asher’s weight at the office on Wednesday was 6 lbs. 3oz.*

PLAN OF ACTION:  We go back to the cardiologist as scheduled on Oct 27th and see where Asher stands, both with his weight and his pulmonary stenosis (O2 percentage).  We would LOVE for Asher to only have ONE HEART SURGERY if at all possible, but we are praying for strength to handle whatever the Lord throws our way.

 Asher’s STRONG pose :-)

Thanks so much for everyone that has commented, emailed, called, texted, and dropped by. We are so grateful to see the Body of Christ at work in and around us. Your prayers are sustaining us and giving us hope for each moment. We’ll never be able to say thank you enough!