Ethan

Ethan was born three weeks early on June 18, 2002. My pregnancy was rough, I had anemia and a lot of premature labor contractions. My delivery, however, went beautifully. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. He was perfect, weighing 7 pounds and had strawberry blonde hair and deep blue eyes. We had a rough first few months. His weight gain was very slow and he had a lot of difficulty feeding. He would tire easily and choke and vomit a lot. Turns out, he had reflux. He has taken medication since he was 5 months old and since has been a completely different baby. He laughs now and hardly ever cries anymore. He has started to sleep most of the night and is gaining weight. (which is nice for me, because I had to feed him every 3-4 hours around the clock just so he'd maintain and grow!)

When Ethan was 3 months old he caught what turned out to be a virus. He was admitted for 3 days with a high fever of over 103.9. That was when he was diagnosed. The pediatrician following him did a thorough work up in order to find out why he was so sick. She heard a murmur and thought it was rather loud so she ordered an echo and EKG. The echo showed the ASD and pulmonary stenosis. Now it made sense to me why he was having bouts of cyanosis. (Although his cardiologist doesn't think his heart is causing the cyanotic episodes.) His PS is only 30mm and his doctor wants to wait until it gets to 50 before he does surgery. Ethan just went back for his check up with the cardiologist and they did a repeat echo and EKG and both are still unchanged.

Ethan's doctor thinks his nervous system is immature and that's why he has periods of cyanosis. He says his hole isn't big enough to cause the cyanosis. It still worries me. His O2 sats are good, but he's not on a monitor and they've always checked him when he wasn't blue or purple. He is thriving though and that is something that he wasn't doing well before.

Now, I just sit and wait until his heart gets worse and they have to do interventions. They don't seem to be too worried. I certainly know that he could have many more problems with his heart and we are so lucky to have just the ASD and PS. His next appointment with the cardiologist is still 5 months away, so until then we will wait. Hopefully his hole closes on it's own and he doesn't need it repaired. Hopefully his PS stays mild and he is one of those kids who has to have an occasional balloon valvuloplasty and can go on with his life and play sports and be healthy. We are blessed to have him in our lives. He and his older brother are very different and I think it will be so much fun to watch them grow up into adults. I'm thankful that I will get the chance to watch him grow into an adult. God has blessed us and I want to thank you for taking the time to read his story. I will update as he gets older. Thank you CHIN for the support, without support, some of us would be lost.