This was the update on Natalie the day we left the hospital. I posted it on Facebook, but hadn't gotten a chance to post it on the blog. So, here it is....
We thought we were gonna be discharged late morning or early afternoon, but things changed.
Yesterday, we had a consult with the peds surgical team, and they felt quite confident that the lesion on Natalie's liver was basically nothing. We would follow up with it in a couple of weeks with an ultrasound, and the chances of it being anything concerning were slim.
Again, this morning, the peds surgeon came by. He told us that he finally had a chance to review the last two ultrasounds, and he was almost positive that the lesion on the liver was a hemangioma. It is very vascular, and about the size of a ping-pong ball (fairly large compared to the size of her liver!), but that it shouldn't cause any problems. The plan was the same- that we would re-evaluate it in 2-3 weeks by ultrasound and just make sure that it wasn't causing any problems or getting bigger.
As we were getting ready to be discharged, the hospital pediatrician came by to evaluate her again. Yesterday, on exam, she found Natalie to have a heart murmur. This is still fairly normal at 24 hrs of life, as a baby's circulation is still trying to convert from fetal circulation in the womb. Today, she found the murmur to still be there, and she seemed very hyperdynamic (you could feel her heart beating really strong through her chest, see her heart beating in her stomach, and the stethoscope bounced on her chest when she listened). Natalie was also still breathing pretty fast and grunting at times. So, she recommended we have the cardiologist come and consult on her.
The cardiologist came and saw her and wanted her to have an Echocardiogram. On the Echo, he found that the hemangioma in the liver is backflowing into the heart, and at 48 hours of age, her right atrium is already enlarged. This can lead to pulmonary hypertension in the lungs. So the solution is to take her in for a procedure (know as a cardiac catheterization) that will place a coil in the blood vessel, remove the blood flow back to the heart, and hopefully cause the hemangioma to shrink and dry up. The issue right now is that she is too small and he doesn't think that the smallest catheter he has is quite small enough. He wants to let her grow as much as possible, hopefully at least a pound or two before the cath, but we don't want to wait for it to cause problems with her circulation and lungs. The plan now is for her to go in on July 2nd or 3rd and have the cath procedure done. We will do another Echo to find out if it worked, and then follow up with the peds surgical team in a couple of weeks to do an ultrasound. If the lesion is still there, they may biopsy it, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We are praying that the cath procedure just takes care of it.
Being such a good girl during her Echo!
Her bilirubin is borderline high right now, so we go in in the morning to have that checked. She has been very tired and has not wanted to eat much, so our goal right now is to get her to eat and hopefully she will gain the weight she needs to before the procedure.
We appreciate everyone's prayers and concern for our little girl. All of your sweet comments and well wishes have meant so much! Natalie is precious and has already been such a blessing to our family. God has been so good to us!
In the carseat and heading home!!!
Yesterday, we had a consult with the peds surgical team, and they felt quite confident that the lesion on Natalie's liver was basically nothing. We would follow up with it in a couple of weeks with an ultrasound, and the chances of it being anything concerning were slim.
Again, this morning, the peds surgeon came by. He told us that he finally had a chance to review the last two ultrasounds, and he was almost positive that the lesion on the liver was a hemangioma. It is very vascular, and about the size of a ping-pong ball (fairly large compared to the size of her liver!), but that it shouldn't cause any problems. The plan was the same- that we would re-evaluate it in 2-3 weeks by ultrasound and just make sure that it wasn't causing any problems or getting bigger.
As we were getting ready to be discharged, the hospital pediatrician came by to evaluate her again. Yesterday, on exam, she found Natalie to have a heart murmur. This is still fairly normal at 24 hrs of life, as a baby's circulation is still trying to convert from fetal circulation in the womb. Today, she found the murmur to still be there, and she seemed very hyperdynamic (you could feel her heart beating really strong through her chest, see her heart beating in her stomach, and the stethoscope bounced on her chest when she listened). Natalie was also still breathing pretty fast and grunting at times. So, she recommended we have the cardiologist come and consult on her.
The cardiologist came and saw her and wanted her to have an Echocardiogram. On the Echo, he found that the hemangioma in the liver is backflowing into the heart, and at 48 hours of age, her right atrium is already enlarged. This can lead to pulmonary hypertension in the lungs. So the solution is to take her in for a procedure (know as a cardiac catheterization) that will place a coil in the blood vessel, remove the blood flow back to the heart, and hopefully cause the hemangioma to shrink and dry up. The issue right now is that she is too small and he doesn't think that the smallest catheter he has is quite small enough. He wants to let her grow as much as possible, hopefully at least a pound or two before the cath, but we don't want to wait for it to cause problems with her circulation and lungs. The plan now is for her to go in on July 2nd or 3rd and have the cath procedure done. We will do another Echo to find out if it worked, and then follow up with the peds surgical team in a couple of weeks to do an ultrasound. If the lesion is still there, they may biopsy it, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We are praying that the cath procedure just takes care of it.
Being such a good girl during her Echo!
Her bilirubin is borderline high right now, so we go in in the morning to have that checked. She has been very tired and has not wanted to eat much, so our goal right now is to get her to eat and hopefully she will gain the weight she needs to before the procedure.
We appreciate everyone's prayers and concern for our little girl. All of your sweet comments and well wishes have meant so much! Natalie is precious and has already been such a blessing to our family. God has been so good to us!
In the carseat and heading home!!!
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