Update on Luna

I know. It's been almost a month since I posted. What happened was Luna was scheduled to have her Glenn in August. Then, because the surgeons at Children's couldn't accommodate her (I think the Big Guns were on a much deserved summer vacation), and because she is doing so well, her surgery was pushed back to September 24th. I had mentally prepared myself for being on the other side of this by now, so when she was pushed back I took a break from heart stuff. Luna hadn't had a single doctor's visit in six weeks so, really, it was nice to enjoy the entire summer with a our new baby. Just yesterday was her first visit to the card in weeks. Here is the lowdown:

Just shy of 6 months old, Luna weighs exactly 15.2 lb and is smack-dab in the 50% percentile! This is ah-mazing. I was in the 50% percentile at her age (hurrah for Mom for keeping such good records), and I'm not even a special heart baby! Truly, this is no small feat for Miss Lu.

In regards to the last statement regarding Luna's weight. SHE-EATS-ALL-THE-TIME!!! For real. This kid can eat. I'm still nursing her. In addition she typically has about 8 oz. of formula/day, two servings of rice cereal, then any combination of peas, bananas, prunes, sweet potato, carrots and I'm sure I'm missing a few. Luna is a big eater...just like her Mama.

Her surgery is September 24th. My friend Sarah told me 24 is her lucky number, so I'm going with that. Pre-op is Monday the 22nd. And the 23rd Luna will undergo a MRI on Tuesday so the docs can check out all her organs before they go into surgery.

Yesterday at her appointment she had an echo. The doctors also checked her pulse, blood pressure, sats, and weight. Her sats are still hanging right at 85 which is perfect and where they've been since birth. All other vitals were perfect too. The three of us; Sienna, Luna and me all went together. Sienna had a blast. Cindy, the echo specialist played Happy Feet on a big screen TV while Luna was stretched out on the bed for her echo. The lights were dimmed (really to see the echo, but as far as Sienna was concerned it was just like the movie theatre) and lolly pops were passed around. Luna conveniently fell asleep so Cindy was able to talk me through what I was seeing on the monitor. She explained to me what the grainy black and white images meant on the screen. She showed me how Luna's LPA (left pulmonary artery) is looking real good-despite the narrowing. Both arteries show 'turbulent flow'. The very word 'turbulent' sent a spike of fear through me, since naturally all I can think of is being jostled around an airplane at 3000 feet-and as my husband knows from flying with me-is my single biggest fear. In Luna's case her shunt is blasting the blood into her arteries artificially, much like an overflowing funnel. Cindy, the echo 'reader' (and wow is that an art, seriously I often can't make heads or tails of what I'm seeing) explained to me Luna's blood flow is more 'aortic rather than pulmonaritc'. So, in Luna's case, too much push and not enough pull. The Glenn will correct that, and make it so her flow is much like yours and mine.

While Luna's heart is malformed, or 'unique', the heart itself is never touched during the surgeries. Instead it's all about rerouting blood flow and working on normalizing and stabilizing her circulatory system. So, really we can think of Luna as undergoing a sophisticated form of plumbing. Only the pipes are of the human variety.