VSD

A few hours after Jordan was born we were informed that she had a Ventricular Septal Defect or VSD. The pediatric cardiologist drew us a quick picture and explained that it was a rather large hole in her heart and that she will need open heart surgery within her first year of life. NOT exactly what you want to hear two hours after giving birth, talk about an emotional roller coaster.

So here's a little lesson on the heart and a VSD. Your heart has 4 chambers, the 2 top ones, the atriums and the 2 lower ones, the ventricles. There is a "wall" that separates the ventricles from one another called, the ventricular septum, this is were her hole is. The lower half of the septum is very muscular and if a hole occurs here it usually closes on its own or a catheterization procedure can take care of it. Unfortunately Jordan's defect is in the upper membranous portion of the septum. These can close on their own when small but Jordan's, being 7mm, is considered on the large side, this means big time open heart surgery is in the future. The problem this hole causes is the oxygen rich blood from the left ventricle gets sucked into the right ventricle instead of getting pumped to the body. The oxygen rich blood then mixes with the oxygen poor blood of the right ventricle and gets sent to the lungs, again. This causes an over abundance of blood to go to the lungs which causes rapid breathing, increased heart rate and a whole slew of other problems. Surgery needs to be performed before certain symptoms become too prevalent in order to protect the lungs and heart from permanent damage.

A picture of Jordan's VSD

As of four weeks old Jordan began with the rapid breathing, and increased heart rate. Even though she has a hearty appetite (thank goodness because most babies with VSD's are diagnosed with failure to thrive) she has not been gaining weight as the doctors would like. This is where medication comes in handy and she is currently taking Lasix, to help keep her lungs dry, and Digoxin, to slow her breathing and heart rate to help her hold onto more calories. In addition to these medications she has to be given 2 "high calorie" bottles each day.