Rebecca, born 2007
On December 13, 2007, my little granddaughter, Rebecca Raye, was born. She is beautiful.
As 20 weeks pregnant, my daughter was given the news that Rebecca had HLHS. My daughter was given the options and chose the three staged surgery. We were terrified. Seven days after Rebecca was born, they were ready to do the first surgery but her diagnosis had changed to Double Outlet Left Ventricle (DORV) so her first surgery was the BT Shunt.
Rebecca spent the next three months in Children's Hospital of Houston. I was thinking we were never going to bring her home. She had feeding issues, reflux, electrolytes went up and down, and her body would not hold calcium. It was one thing after another. The doctors decided a feeding tube was in order, so there was another surgery. They weren't able to get Rebecca off of oxygen, so to date, she is on oxygen, but she is home.
We are getting close to her second surgery, the Glenn procedure so we are anxious about the next surgery. Rebecca sees a doctor at least once a week, sometimes twice a week. My daughter said it would not matter if it was 10 times a week, that she would not change one thing about Rebecca. My daughter takes the good with the bad and I am proud of her for being such a trooper. God certainly knows exactly what he is doing.
Story by Debra, grandmother to Rebecca - TEXAS