This Blog is being started to follow the birth and growth of Elijah Thomas.
As you are all aware Elijah is our little miracle. We found out at 11 weeks gestation that Elijah had something wrong. After many tests, tears and questions we were told that Elijah was still thriving and holding on. We had to wait until 19 weeks gestation to have a level II ultrasound, it was here that we found out Elijah was suffering from a serious heart defect. The defect was called Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome.
Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome (HRHS) . HRHS refers to the underdevelopment of the right side structures of the heart, which means that the chambers, valves and related blood vessels on the right side of the heart are malformed. This malformation involves the pulmonary valve atresia which has not formed, a very small right ventricle, a small tricuspid valve and a small hypoplastic pulmonary artery. As the ventricle has failed to grow and develop the ventricles muscle structure is poor, so additional problems are encountered as the heart attempts to pump blood to the pulmonary valve for transfer to the lungs. The proper amount of blood pumped from the right atrium is not sufficient and this causes the blood to be not pumped efficiently to the lungs.
Fast forward 4 months, 20 doctor appointments, 15 ultrasounds, 5 fetal Eco cardiograms, countless tears and we are 6 days away from the birth of Elijah. I can find no words to describe exactly the anticipation and fear we feel.
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