Background info

Disclaimer: I'm a pilot, not a doctor, so be prepared for a 5 year old's interpretation of where baby's come from...

Greetings!

Thank you for all your concern during this difficult time. It really is wonderful to have so many people concerned about us. I'll be using this blog to keep everyone as up to date as possible on the happenings here in San Diego.

Currently, we are waiting on the surgical team to decide when they will conduct the cardiac surgery. Right now, it seems the surgery will take place sometime next week. As you can imagine, we are fairly anxious to proceed forward. It will take a few weeks for her to recover, and she will spend her entire recovery here in Childrens' ICU.

Today she moved to a new medication that will adjust how much blood is moved around her body.

Ok, so here is the background information if you're just catching up now.

Audrey Rose Fair was born on Sunday, August 24th at 3:51 pm. She weighed 5 lbs and 2 oz, a low birth-weight. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, and she was born a rich, royal purple color. After what seemed like an eternity, she took her first breath and pinked up.
Later that night, Linda noticed Audrey was turning a darker shade when she fed. In the morning a nurse went to bathe Audrey, and when Audrey cried, she turned blue and purple. She was immediately taken to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Tri-City. After a short period, the decision was made that she needed advanced care, and she was transported to the NICU at Children's Hospital in San Diego.
After some examinations, it was determined that she has a congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. Basically this means that the in and out piping of her heart formed backwards, creating two separate blood transportation systems. On one side, blood travels from the heart to the lungs and back to the heart, and on the other, blood travels from the heart to the body and back to the heart, without going through the oxygen transfer process in the lungs. Currently, she has a sufficient transfer of oxygenated blood from one loop to the other through a hole in her heart, so she is not in any immediate danger. However, she will require open heart surgery within her first 3 weeks to detach and reattach her vessels to the correct spots. Of course, Linda has a much more thorough understanding of all this, but I hope this is clear enough.

It is unclear what the long term prognosis will be. The surgery will fix the emergent issues, but as far as 30+ years down the road, we don't know. This is mostly due to emerging surgery techniques. There is no data for the types of surgery they conduct now because it is so new. Problems associated with this surgery from 30 years ago won't really apply because of the new methods of surgery.

We are fortunate to know numerous medical professionals who are cardiac specialists from across the US. All agree that Children's is a great hospital and the NICU cardiac surgeons are among the best in the US. Not to diminish the severity of Audrey's condition, but the surgery she requires is not uncommon here. In fact, there are two children in front of Audrey to have the procedure.

Anyway, I want to get this posted. Thanks again for all your concern, and I'll post when I can.

Today is Andrew's Birthday. Happy Birthday Andrew!!! Wish we could all be together.