What is causing all of Matthew’s seemingly random symptoms lately? Our cardiologist believes he knows the answer! Matthew has a moderate to large ‘patent ductus arteriosus’ (PDA). His pulmonary artery never disconnected from his aorta, as it should have after birth. This heart defect has caused his heart to work overtime sending lots of blood to his lungs and back again, causing his heart to enlarge. As well, it is flooding Matthew's lungs with fluid making it more difficult to breathe & eat and it is starting to fill his other organs with fluid. Though seeing the words ‘congestive heart failure’ is scary…it is okay! We have an answer, and it’s fixable!
In the short term, if nephrology signs off, Matthew will start diuretics to ease the fluid retention and a calcium supplement to help strengthen his heart. This should give him immediate relief. Then he will need to undergo a procedure to close the PDA. For this, our cardiologist has referred us to TCH cardiology. We had already scheduled an appointment with them for Oct 11, but we pray that we will be seen earlier than that.
Heart trumps head, so we most likely need to get this PDA fixed before we can schedule the cranialfacial surgery. We have appointments tomorrow with nephrology and cranialfacial, so we’ll know more then.
On a side note from the cardiology appointment, Matthew’s ASD has all but closed up and is now in the ‘normal’ range for his age and his functional bicuspid valve is still working perfectly.
Thank you for the continued prayers for our sweet baby Matthew!
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