Care4Conway: No Cavities

Thursday, September 24, 2009

No Cavities

Connie's visit to the dentist went well. She said his little mouth is a bit overcrowded and we need to floss him already since his teeth are touching in the front. She told us that because of his history, his permanent teeth are likely to be less than perfect. She said that lots of times with kids who have had surgery or trauma as a young baby, they don't develop the right amount of enamel and are more cavity prone than most teeth. He may need to be a person that sees the dentist more than twice a year. We won't worry about that yet. We were also told once that he'd be cortically blind and he sees just fine so we'll continue to pray for health and expect that that is what God will give him. He loved the waiting room. It was decorated like a train station and had a little loft built in. He kept popping his head in the windows and saying, "Boo!"
Here's a new pic of our boy playing with his train table (thanks Amy!)...

. . .with his new train shirt!

New Baby Beckemeier is due April 13, 2010!

9 comments:

Unknown said...: We were not so blessed at our dentist appointment. Eli has two cavaties. Thankfully, they are on the surface and we hope they can be fixed in the office.

And congratulations on the new baby announcement! I went to the hospital in labor with my #5 on the morning of April 13, 2001! Since it was #5, OB filled out all the paperwork, but Cade wasn't born until the 14th! His birth cert. came back with the wrong birthday! I think he didn't want to be born on Friday the 13th. lol; September 24, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Terri Haseltine said...: That is awesome news! I am thrilled for you and the whole family. The Buford side certainly has the baby thing going on!!! Terri; September 24, 2009 at 2:06 PM
H. James said...: Yahoo! What a great update. I'm glad the dentist went well. And we are SOOOO excited for Connie to be a big brother! I assume you'll be having the BIG workup with a fetal echo & all that. We did all that with Libby and fortunately, of course, it all turned out just fine. Keep us posted on everyone's progress!; September 24, 2009 at 2:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Congratulations!!!! What exciting news!

Sandy Juhala; September 24, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Jean Sundman said...: Congratulations on the new baby arriving in April. The 13th of April is a great day to be born!! Connie will be a good big brother.; September 24, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Unknown said...: Ya Connie - I'm glad that your first dentist visit went great. I think that you might see the same dentist as Lorelei? Dr. Cummings? She is great. Lorelei had dental surgery last year and it was so funny at the hospital. The nurses and everyone are trying to prepare you for "SURGERY" and all I could do was laugh and say "well they aren't opening her chest are they?" It was a walk in the park compared to the norm. But none the less Cummings is great.

And oh my GOD!!!! I am so happy for you guys. I know you are having so many crazy feelings right now as you have every right to have but it will get easier. I think we had 10 ultrasounds and a fetal echo with little Shelbey. I was a nervous reck somedays and calm as can be another. It didn't help that my hormones were on over drive and my emotions were way out of control. But none the less a joyfull pregnancy and at least I knew Shelbey was going to be perfect no matter what happened. All of our heart babies and special babies are perfect in gods eyes and our eyes. They are miracles and angels put here on earth to teach us all how to love and give with our whole hearts.

Heart Hugs,

Nicole Hoagland
mom of Lorelei HLHS
and Shelbey HH; September 24, 2009 at 8:56 PM
Rachel Anderson said...: Congrats on the dentist update! Sounds like a good visit. We were at that office on Tuesday. I wasn't brave enough to take Nathan yet, though. The train is the highlight of my kids' visit!

Congrats on the new additon, too!; September 25, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Lisa P said...: Thank goodness that you are worried about things like dentist appointments right now :-) Its nice when the "normal" things come back into our lives, isn't it?; September 25, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Anonymous said...: How wonderful that you are expecting a new arrival next April! Count on my prayers that all goes perfectly. I am postive that it will.

What good news about our Connie! I was in an auto accident (not serious) and was away from my computer for three weeks, so I have had to catch up. It is thrilling that he is doing so well.
Much love, Sr Josephine; October 7, 2009 at 9:13 PM

Conway's Heart Story

Conway's Heart Story

Conway David Beckemeier was born on March 3, 2007. His heart defects went undetected during pregnancy and he was diagnosed at two days of age with L-TGA, a large VSD, sub pulmonic stenosis and Ebstein’s Anomaly. Just before turning six months of age, he underwent open heart surgery to reroute the bloodflow in his heart. Called the "double switch", this procedure is the most technically challenging for pediatric cardio-thoracic surgeons to perform. The version of the double switch that Conway received on 8/28/07 was called the Rastelli-Senning with VSD closure and sub pulmonic resection. He suffered a grand mal seizure following the surgery that lasted over an hour and had several other post-op setbacks including surgical heart block, which required another operation on 9/18/07 to insert a pacemaker. Following surgery and such a long hospital stay, Conway developed an oral aversion (he would not eat) and he was 100% NG tube fed for eight months. He also lost muscle tone and required both physical and occupational therapies. In April 2008, he had a cardiac cath and attempted balloon angioplasty on his pulmonary arteries that did not work. Although his recovery was very long, he had a solid year or so of being a "normal" kid . Then in May of 2009, it was discovered that Conway was having rhythm disturbances, specifically atrial flutter. His pacemaker allowed it to go undetected for several weeks until he showed signs of heart failure and was admitted to the ICU for a week to be placed on IV heart meds and undergo cardioversion on 5/6/09. He went home and his heart function started recovering when he had another episode of flutter (6/16/09). This time, he was again hospitalized and put on IV milrinone, but he converted back to normal sinus rhythm by himself. At that time he was placed on the anti-arrhythmia drug, amiodarone. On 7/22/09 he had to be cardioverted again for yet another episode of flutter. The following week, he got worse instead of better. His cardiologist did a full work up and it was determined that his aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves were all leaking worse and were felt to be the cause of his heart failure. On 8/24/09 he had a cardiac cath and attempted ablation. The electrophysiologist was unable to induce a single arrhythmia. Then, just two days later, he went into atrial flutter on his own. He was placed back in the cath lab where he underwent mapping and a total of 17 burns were made to try to knock out his arrhythmias for good. The next day, 8/27/09, he had his second open heart surgery to repair his mitral valve called ring annuloplasty. He also had a partial Maze procedure done. His surgeries are performed at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). This time he was discharged just six days later! His Left Ventricular function improved drastically. In December 2010 we noticed he began getting more winded during physical activity. A January 2011 cath showed that he is outgrowing his RV-PA gortex conduit, but he was not symptomatic enough to warrant intervention. In April 2012 Conway’s fatigue increased and an echo at the end of May revealed that the ratio between the right and left sided pressures has gotten too high and it is time to replace the homograft that was placed when he was five months old. He had a cardiac cath on 5/25/12 which confirmed the echo findings. He had surgery on 8/8/12 to replace his pulmonary valve and RV-PA conduit, add an additional pacing wire to his left ventricle, and change his generator to a bi-ventricular model which is shown to preserve function and help the heart muscle pump more efficiently/effectively.