Care4Conway: Baby Update

Monday, December 7, 2009

Baby Update

Today was the fetal echo to check on Baby Karsten's heart and make sure there are no major defects such as atresias, hypoplastic ventricles or L-transposition. Dr. Goel did the echo himself and said that everything is pointing to a perfectly healthy heart baby. Since the heart is not pumping to the lungs until after birth and since the view is more reliable on the child himself rather than through the mother's abdomen, he is going to repeat an echo on Baby Karsten sometime before he's discharged from the hospital after birth. He said that generally it wouldn't be warranted, but given Connie's history it is easily justifiable and it would certainly make us feel 100% confident that we wouldn't be surprised down the road.

After the echo I had my regular OB appt. and it was so brief. Since I had just come from the echo there was no need to even listen with the doppler. He just asked if I had any questions and then scheduled me for another appt. in 4 more weeks.

Thank you for all your prayers for this new little one. We are getting more and more excited for his arrival with each passing day!

2 comments:

Unknown said...: Wonderful news!! I'm so glad for you. And I really love his name! April will be here before you know it!

Lisa in TN
Eli's mom
(L-TGA); December 7, 2009 at 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...: This is great news, Erin. I received your beautiful Christmas card today, and was delighted to see how good everyone looks! I wish you every joy of peace, prosperity, grace, and happiness. Love and prayers always, especially for new little Karsten! Love, Sr Josephine; December 9, 2009 at 8:32 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.