I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo. : Kade's Heart

I started this blog after Kade had received open heart surgery to repair a VSD. Because it had already passed I didn't bother posting a blog about it; But I have had so many questions about what happened! So, I thought I'd answer them all here and post some pictures of Kade and his Primary Childrens Adventure.

Q: Did you know that Kade had a heart defect before he was born?
A: No. We actually had to go through hell to find out what was wrong with Kade. We took Kade to his doctor multiple times and went through many late night ER visits before someone could tell us what was happening. Since Kade was only a couple months old we started noticing something wasn't right. He was sweating profusely after feedings, was tired all of the time, and had a chronic cough that we just couldn't get rid of.

Q: How did you find out about Kade's heart defect?
A: One night, around six o'clock I took Kade to an after hours care doctor. The nurses assistant noticed something strange when listening to Kades heart. She alerted the nurse, who immediately pulled the doctor in. The doctor ordered a chest x-ray. After the results came back I was told that his heart was enlarged and that it would be best for me to take him immediately to the emergency room.

In the emergency room, they did more x-rays and labs. Eventually, we were told that Ogden Regional Med was not equipped for dealing with an infant with a heart problem. We were then sent to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

The doctors at Primary Children's are amazing! They ran a few tests and right away knew what was wrong with Kade. Ventrical Septal Defect and Atrial Septal Defect. Pretty much, small holes in his heart. They put Kade on medicine to lower his blood pressure and take some of the work off his heart and sent us home- hopeful that we would escape open heart surgery.

After a few months on the medicine, we had a follow up appointment with Dr.Pinto at Primary Children's. She told us that the medicine was not helping and it was necessary to perform open heart surgery to mend the large VSD in Kade's heart.

Kade had open heart surgery on April 12th, 2011. Daddy smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes that morning. The hardest part was handing him over to the anesthesiologist and watching him be taken back to the operating room. He cried and reached for us- it broke my heart! After about five hours we were told that Kade had done beautifully and was recovering in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. We could finally see our sweet baby!

Kade spent just one night in the CICU. Once his blood pressure was gone, they moved him into a surgical recovery room where he stayed for just four days! He was so brave and such an inspiration to me. For having gone through so much, he always had a grin on his face and was flirting with all of the nurses.

Kade is now fully recovered. He has an echocardiogram scheduled for next month to make sure everything is still working properly. Since the surgery he has grown so much, so quickly! He has vast amounts of energy compared to before- my grandpa says you can see the piss and vinegar in his eyes. ha! He is doing so great. I can't believe what a brave boy he is.