Miss Pear and the Cardiologist

I was waiting to write this after our company left. I had started it and looked at it many times, but was never comfortable enough about it to hit the publish button. I realize now that it is not the post that has me uncomfortable so much as the harsh reality of it. So now that Baby is doing better, it feels like time to share this too.

Exactly one week before Baby Pear was admitted to the hospital Miss Pear had her annual check up at the pediatric cardiologist for her heart murmur. We were not concerned when we went in, we knew it was a preventative thing to monitor her as she grows. And she was saying cardiologist as only a 3 year old can...it was so funny.

The appointment basically went as expected, except for the last part.

Miss Pear has a small membrane in her heart. It is something that is not there at birth, but develops and seems to accompany her kind of heart murmur.

This year it was causing things to be louder. So that means that at some point in her life, preferably before she is 6 she will need to have heart surgery to remove it.

The surgery will be to ensure she remains healthy and to protect the valve. But it will be open heart surgery.

It is very weird. Outwardly she is the picture of health. I guess inwardly too. But if we do nothing, she could need valve replacement by the time she is 20. The surgery will be preventative, which seems so strange.

We are not to do anything for a year. We go back to see our cardiologist in a year, and he will evaluate her again, and likely refer us to the surgeon then. We asked if it was safe to wait a year, and he assured us that it was, we just needed to start thinking and talking about it now.

Of course it was a week later that we ended up in the ER with Baby Pear, so the combination pretty much threw us, but God is faithful, and He is going to see us through this and all of life's trials.

It is two weeks since we landed in the hospital, three since we heard the words open heart surgery. It all still seems so overwhelming, but somehow it feels like God is strengthening us to help us get back on track and do what our family needs, to keep things running, and to re-establish normal.

To be honest, we are not really sure how to pray. Mostly I pray for God to protect her, and that she will have a long and healthy life. I pray that she will be mostly oblivious to what is going on until we absolutely have to tell her, and that she will quickly recover. And I pray for miracle healing, that as medically unlikely as it is, that the membrane will be gone or at least markedly smaller next year.