Ultrasound #4

I got to see my little sweetheart on Valentine's Day, which I think is pretty fitting :).  Ellen (Jason's mom) joined me for the ultrasound since Jason is still in Brazil.  It started off with the cardiologist doing her portion of the ultrasound, which obviously focused on Logan's heart.  After looking at it for about 45 minutes, she told us that Logan's heart defect is called "L Transposition".  She told me to only look up information on websites such as Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (and a few others), but I haven't been able to find anything that's really informative that deals with babies in utero.  She did give me a couple of pictures, though, so I'll post those after a brief explanation.  Bear with me, because I'm not a doctor, so I hope I can explain it so that it's easy to understand yet still accurate :).


There are 4 chambers in the heart.  The bottom 2 chambers of Logan's heart are backward, meaning the Right Ventricle is actually on the left and the Left Ventricle is on the right.  Also, instead of the Pulmonary Artery and Aortic Valve crossing, they are aligned next to each other (parallel).  The cardiologist said that these aren't necessarily bad things, though, because "2 negatives make a positive".  Even though these things are backward, they still match up in the right way so that the blood is pumping like it needs to and the heart is functioning well.  He also still has the hole in his heart, but the cardiologist said that while Logan is in the womb, this is actually necessary.  I don't remember exactly what explanation she gave for it, but I believe it has something to do with the mixing of the blood or something (sorry!).  Anyway, the way I see it is that God knows more than I do and has proven once again that He is in control, not me ;).  The hole will have to be fixed eventually, but we don't yet know how soon that will be.


One potential problem is that his Pulmonary Artery is bigger and pumping more blood than the Aortic Valve.  What this *may* do is cause the Aortic Valve to shrink a little -or- not expand as much as it needs to in order to pump enough blood.  If this is the case, he will probably have to have surgery within a week of being born.  We are praying that this won't be the case!!!  I don't like the idea of my days-old baby having heart surgery :(.  


We are supposed to set up an appointment to meet with the cardiologist in a few weeks and she would like us to talk with one of the surgeons.  She said that he can give us the pros and cons of the surgery that he will need.  We also go back for another ultrasound on March 15th to check on Logan's growth.  At this ultrasound, he measured right on track and weighed 2lbs 8oz :).


One surprise at this ultrasound was getting to see Logan in 3D :).  The nurse secretly switched the ultrasound probes and all of a sudden, I was watching my little man's face!  It was the most precious thing I've ever seen :).  And while we were watching him, he smiled!!!!  Ahhhhhh... he melted his mommy's heart! :)  Even though we couldn't get a 'great' picture of his entire face, she still printed 2 pictures for us and they're amazing.  I'm even more excited to meet him now :).  He is the perfect mix of his mom and dad :).


Anyway, here are the heart pictures, if you'd like have a visual of what I described above (you can click on them for a larger image):

Also, here are the 3D pictures of him :).

The second one is my favorite :).  He has the cutest little face!  I could look at it all day :).  Anyway, I hope this was informative for you and fairly easy to understand.  Please pray for his aortic valve to expand like it needs to so that the blood flow will be even.  Also, please pray that he will continue to grow and thrive in his momma's tummy :).  Thank you for stopping by to check on us.  I'll try to keep you updated on any new developments :).