Dahlia Heart Surgery- Update

Our sweet Dahlia has an Atrial Septal Defect. In English, she has hole in her Atrial wall within her heart. Last year there was a team of 13 cardiologists that had a meeting to review her case and they all voted that she should get open heart surgery. My grandfather in law had just passed away due to heart related complications and we were not ready and also did not feel good about this surgery. At that time, we met with the Pediatric Surgeon and we did not like him at all. We decided to "gamble" and try to wait until she was older to get the catheter surgery to close this hole rather than have her undergo a very serious open heart surgery with a surgeon we didnt even like.

Well, Thursday we went in for another visit to her cardiologist. Her hole was still the same size but he was happy that she had been growing. The hole can remain the same size but as Dahlia grows, so does her heart and her atrial wall grows too. He gave us the wonderful news that he feels comfortable in trying the catheter surgery now!!! We are soooo excited as this means we are looking at September to have her hole closed! There is very very little recovery time with this catheter surgery. She will most likely come home within 24 hours! There are no restrictions and she can pretty much resume her fun little active life. We feel soooo relieved as we can finally close that chapter in our life, no pun intended. We have worried so much about our sweet little girl and we are looking forward to her being able to do the same things as her siblings without getting as tired as she does now. We are very interested to see if she will grow too! (Liana is 1 and she weighs more than Dahlia!!)

Now, the Doctor said that he may get into the surgery and find that he may not be able to complete it. The device that he will be placing is kinda like a oreo. Think of the cream of the oreo filling Dahlia's hole in her heart. The wafers on the outside will hug the walls on either side of the heart. If he gets in there and finds that there is not enough room to place the device, he will simply take it out. As far as the measurements go, he thinks he should have plenty of room but it is hard to know exactly until he gets into surgery. If this happens, she will get to go home that same day and we will try again next year. If it is successful, this device will stay in her little heart forever. Her own skin will grow over the device and she will never know its there :)

We will definetly keep yall posted when we know a date for surgery! Thanks for all your prayers for our sweet little Dahlia Bear!