Harper Update

Yesterday's appointments went really well. The overall consensus is that Harper's heart is totally fixable and there is a real optimistic feeling held by all of our doctors.

That's the short story. The longer story is this:

I haven't even mentioned another issue we were having because I wanted to wait and see how this appointment went. Harper is pretty small and there were/are some concerns about her growth. She measured perfectly on with our dates at our very first appointment, but at the appointment with Dr. Atkinson back in November, she was measuring 6 days behind in growth. The growth issue combined with the heart defect raised some concern about a chromosomal abnormality (think Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18). We had to wait until this appointment to get one more set of numbers to plot Harper's growth and compare it to the average growth curve. Small is okay, as long as the shape of her growth curve matches the shape of the normal growth curve. I'm very relieved to say that while she is very small for her gestational age (measuring 10 days behind now), she is still growing along the normal growth curve. Any growth issues we have after this point would indicate more of a problem with the placenta rather than a chromosomal problem.

We would have to have an amniocentesis to be absolutely certain one way or another, but at this time, the risks of that procedure aren't worth the benefit of knowing to Dustin and myself. If things stay the way they are now, as far as Harper's heart and our plan for her immediately after delivery, the results of that test would be inconsequential anyway. So, we will wait and continue to pray that Harper be as healthy as possible.

The heart issue isn't as much of a concern right now (in utero), but the growth issue is something that they will be watching closely. I go back to Dr. Atkinson in two weeks and back to the cardiologist in three weeks. They will probably start weekly monitoring after that point.

So our plan remains the same for now: a planned delivery in Lubbock, the PA Band surgery her first week of life, a short NICU stay, and then waiting for Harper to get a little bigger so they can go in there and really fix the problems with her heart so that she can lead a healthy, active, normal life.

I like to have a plan and I'm feeling good about this one.

Thank you again for your calls and texts to check on me and for your prayers for Harper and myself. For the time being, it seems we're doing pretty well.