A few days ago we had a follow-up with our Peri, the baby's cardiologist and we also met his cardiac surgeon. Baby wasn't positioned well and we didn't get a print out of the 3D ultrasound, although we were able to see a few views of his face on the monitor and Dustin was pretty convinced that baby looks a lot like his big brother Matthew!
As has become typical with our experiences with the Cleveland Clinic, our doctors have always been kind, knowledgeable and confident and we continue to learn more about baby's condition and become more prepared for his arrival. That said, with each visit, God has always put someone in place for us to meet and uplift us during our experience. This time it was a family with a 5 1/2 month old son who has the same heart defect (although his seems to be more complex than we think we are facing at this point) and who also has Down syndrome. The baby was gorgeous and his parents were equally as amazing... mom was beautiful, put together and composed and dad was holding the baby, reassuring him that he was going to be okay, although his breathing sounded congested. In my first few seconds of observing this other young family, I was so incredibly encouraged that we might be okay too. I desperately wanted to talk to them, but even my generally talkative self was at a loss for words. What do you say? I whispered to Dustin at least 10 times, "I want to talk to her, what should I say?" As usual, he rescued me by looking up at the mom and calmly asking her if her baby had a heart defect? She was really sweet and responded with yes, it was AV Canal (and then she included a chain of acronyms and diagnosis laden words that haven't become a part of my vocabulary yet) and we talked a bit about his surgery, which had been completed 2 weeks earlier at Boston Children's Hospital. Then she was called back by the nurse and I was saddened that she had to leave. Such a wealth of knowledge and experience and someone who was close to my age, with a baby, also close in age to our son due in just a few weeks.... I was completely shocked when a few minutes later, she returned to the waiting room to deliver a piece of paper with her name, phone number and email address for us. She said she'd love to talk sometime and encouraged us to reach out to her. I emailed her last night and we exchanged a few messages today. What a blessing for us to have connected to someone who has offered me such an amazing vision of hope! She and I have also connected on facebook and it's pretty awesome to follow their path. Blessings abound for our family (and their's too), we just have to be open to accepting them!
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