Addison, born 2005

On July 4, 2005 at 8:32AM, Addison arrived in the world; our own little firecracker. The next morning the doctor heard a slight heart murmur and sent him for an EKG and chest x-ray. Later on that day, they phoned to explain that from the results of the tests, he thought Addison had a Ventricular Septal Defect.

 

The next day we discussed the things that we needed to watch for should Addison have any complications. We let everything sink in and took our "little man" home on July 6th. He was watched closely by our pediatrician for five days until he could be seen by a pediatric cardiologist.

 

On July 12th, the VSD was confirmed after the echocardiogram. Addison had a moderate size hole in his heart and possible stenosis in his pulmonary valve. However, we were told that the outlook was good and discussed with us once again all the things to watch for.

 

We returned to the PC in August when Addison was six weeks old. He was doing great as he had gained a good amount of weight and had no blue spells or trouble breathing. Our next visit was scheduled for November when he would be 4 months old.

 

November 3rd is a day we will never forget. Going to this appointment and hoping for the best, turned into a new diagnosis and upcoming surgery. During the echocardiogram, the pediatric cardiologist discovered that not only did he have a VSD and PS, but also discovered that there was a blockage and a muscle build up from the heart working so hard. It was explained to us that these four things make up Tetralogy of Fallot - a heart defect that needs to be repaired with open heart surgery.

 

We were very lucky because Addison was considered a "pink tet" and never had any complications before his repair. It just was hard to digest that he needed open heart surgery because he looked healthy and gained lots of weight up to this point.

 

Addison's repair took place on January 3, 2006. Everything was a great success with a great outlook for the rest of his life. A wonderful outcome for our special "little man".

 

Story by Addison's mom, Koren - Connecticut