Member Profiles
TABBI
When Tabitha was born she weighed in at a healthy 8lbs and 2oz. Tabitha was our 4th child. So we were pretty use to the routine of having children. It wasn't until Tabitha was a couple of weeks old that I felt she was different than my other children. When you held Tabitha, you could feel her heart pounding right thru her chest and every once in a while she would breathe very heavy like it took a great deal of energy to breathe. We didn't panic, we thought we would observe her more. At about 1 month it was becoming very difficult for her to fall asleep. Sometimes it would take up to 3 hours of holding and rocking her. At her 2 month doctors visit I related my concerns to her doctor and he said he would make a note of it and keep an eye on it. So I didn't worry, after all, her doctor said she was fine.
I began to notice that it took a great deal for her to drink her bottle she would sweat while drinking and she would only drink about 2 - 3 ounces at a time.
When she was 4 months old she got a terrible cold. I was concerned about her cough so we took her to the hospital. When they put Tabitha on the scale to weigh her my heart started sinking. The scale said she weighed 10lbs. I knew that a child who weighed over 8lbs at birth should weigh more than just 10lbs at 4 months. The emergency room doctor took x-rays and said that her heart was enlarged. He immediately called her doctor to let him know.
We took Tabitha the next day to her doctor, he listened for a moment to her heart and quickly left the room. Immediately he sent us to a cardiologist. After some test were run The cardiologist told us that Tabitha had heart disease. We were stunned. She had Transposition of the Great Arteries. By that evening she was in the Intensive care unit at the children's hospital with congestive heart failure.
There were moments in that day that I felt she was going to die in my arms. On top of the heart failure she had RSV. This made it impossible for them to take care of the heart condition because of the infection.
The next two months were filled with tube feedings, breathing treatments and many sleepless nights. I could just see Tabitha becoming more and more sickly. The RSV kept clinging to her poor lungs. Finally at 6 months old and still weighing only 10lbs, the RSV left her body. Because of her weak state, the operation which is normally done in stages was going to be done all at once. This was a risky procedure but we felt it was worth the risk.
The surgery took 6 hours but Tabitha came through with flying colors. She was home within 10 days.
Today she is a happy little 2 year old. She is still small weighing 25 pounds and she still has breathing problems, but it does not slow her down.
The lesson we have learned from this is to
trust your feelings about your children. I knew that when Tabitha was 2 months
old that there was something wrong. I am much more aggressive now when I feel
there is a problem. We love our little Tabbi
Back
Join TABBI and the rest of us in the Heart Disease Forum:
