Meeting Dr. Reddy

Tuesday I took Jake to TCH in the Woodlands to meet his new cardiologist, Dr. Reddy. We were a bit apprehensive about having a new doctor since we loved Dr. Grenier so much. I realize I don't deal with change well but especially when it comes to the health of my child! Anyway, I took Jake in for his check-up and it was good to see the nurses at the hospital. They couldn't believe how big Jake was and how well he looked. Dr. Reddy was really impressive too. He is a kind and gentle man who made sure he made Jake smile before examining him. He asked me questions about Jake's history and listened to his heart. Dr. Grenier had told us before that Jake would always have a pronounced murmur so I wasn't surprised when Dr. Reddy said his heart was "noisy." Jake then had a 45 minute echo done, and he did great! They put the movie Cars on for him to watch and held quite still. After the test Dr. Reddy interpreted the results and gave us some not quite good news. It seems Jake has developed subvalvar aortic stenosis which means he has a membrane that has appeared just above the aortic valve. This does not appear at birth but usually appears after a child has had heart surgery often for a VSD (Jake had an ASD and a VSD). He said not to worry now, it would just be something they would watch for the next few years. He said he has had some patients who have this and are now 16 and have never had to have surgery. He's had others who had to have surgery within a few years. There's not a particular pattern for its development. Basically, it won't require surgery unless the membrane grows and begins to interfere with the blood flow coming from the aortic valve. If that does happen, they can go in and take the membrane out, BUT it often grows back. For that reason, they try not to do surgery unless it is absolutely necessary. I read up on the condition and it looks like 65% of patients end up having eventual surgery, but that means 35% don't have surgery! We will just pray that Jake stays in the 35% category. Ty couldn't go to the appointment with me and asked me if he did have surgery if it would be open heart or if they could do it less invasively. I didn't think to ask Dr. Reddy that question but from what I've seen online it looks like it would be open heart surgery again (although that's my internet research talking...not too official!)

Our good news was that the repair on his mitral valve looks great and is just minimally leaking which will be normal for Jake. Because of that, Dr. Reddy took Jake off his Enapril and Jake is officially medicine free for the first time since he was three months old! We'll go back in six months (May), and Dr. Reddy will check the membrane and if it hasn't grown, we'll be on track for check-ups every year at that point. So please just pray that this membrane doesn't grow and Jake's heart stays healthy!