Brody's Heart

In the sonograms of Brody at 18 weeks and 23 weeks, the four chambers of his heart could not be clearly seen. So after the 23 weeks sonogram, Dr. Breit (my OB) sent us to Dr. O'Hara (a high-risk OB) to have a echocardiogram done. After the echocardiogram we got to meet with Dr. O'Hara to go over the results - I wish all doctor's office results were that quick. She asked right away if he had a name yet and called Brody by name as she talked with us - I loved that! She brought a laptop in with her and showed us pictures of his heart. She explained how the heart normally looks and showed us how his heart has a hole between the right and left atrium. The divider that you normally see there has a large hole in it; that is why the 4 separate chambers couldn't easily be seen in the sonograms. It is called Atrial Septal Defect. She showed us how there isn't really a separation in the blood between the top two parts of his heart. She told us how all babies have a small hole there where the blood flows until they start using their lungs and then it normally closes up or is small enough to not matter. She said that based on the size of the hole and the way blood pools instead of staying separated, they will need to do a surgery after he is born. The surgery will not need to happen immediately when he is born and is not as serious of a surgery as is required for many other heart defects. As far as heart defects go, this is a good one to have. We will see a pediatric cardiologist at the end of this month to look even closer at his heart and will find out more information.
We will continue seeing Dr. Breit like we normally would, but we will also see Dr. O'Hara once a month. Today is the first time we have seen Dr. Breit since seeing Dr. O'Hara, and I wanted to talk to her before posting this. She said most of the same things Dr. O'Hara said was very reassuring. We thank God for our wonderful baby boy and pray for him daily. Please pray that between now and when he is born the hole will become smaller and for us to know that God is in control in all situations. We already love our Brody so much!