Hope for Henry

Twins!!!!! July 16, 2013 was one of the most exciting days of my life. Anyone who as knows us knows the news of twins would send us over the moon! I had an excellent pregnancy and carried them to 39 weeks. On November 12,2013 two beautiful little men were born Seamus weighing in at 6-14 and Henry 6-4. an hour and a half after The twins were born the pediatrician heard a heart murmur in henry. He was took to the nicu to be looked over as his oxygen levels were a little low. After an ultrasound and phone calls with children's we found out our baby had a very rare heart defect that would require surgery. I bluntly asked the pediatrician "could he die?", and when he answered back "yes" I felt as if he took a 2x4 to my head. I cried and prayed all night. Every couple hours Chris would help me into a wheel chair and take me to him, I would lay my hands on him tears streaming down my face praying. We were air lifted to children's early that morning. Henry's chd was completely missed in all my ultrasounds. On Monday November 18th Henry went for his first of many open heart surgeries. At about 4:00pm we got to see him in the icu. Surgery went very well and as expected. Henry did much better than we did pacing the halls. It was a long 4 hours. Henry has a congenital heart defect called tetrology of fallot with pulmonary atresia. Simplified, you and I have a four chamber heart with a pulmonary artery going to the lungs to get oxygen into the blood. Henry has a three chamber heart with no artery going to the lungs. For his first week he was kept alive by keeping a bypass valve used in utero open with medicine. It usually closes within 12 hours after birth. The surgeon has put in a bt shunt to replicate this valve. This is temporary until about 6-9 months when he is strong enough to endure a surgery that will essentially rebuild his heart. A donor artery will be used to create a pulmonary artery for him. However this artery does not grow and will require the same surgery over and over until he is full grown. These months leading up to that surgery are the most critical for him as he has limited oxygen in his blood and the shunt has potential to clog. We will be monitoring his oxygen levels twice daily and talking to a nurse at children's hospital every couple days to report how he is doing. He will also be going regularly for visits to children's to be seen by the cardiologist, this is no easy task as a family of 11. It is important for him to stay healthy during this time as colds, flus, coughs, etc can cause dehydration which in turn causes clotting. he is on aspirin daily to help with the clotting. Please pray for him as he comes to your mind as well for us. This has been such a faith builder as we have seen god move us through each day. God has continually spoke to us through other people over and over different people keep saying "God's got this" and every time we hear those three words peace overwhelms us. This truly has been our most difficult trial to walk through. My heart has never ached so bad, I missed my children at home and hurt for my newborn being poked and prodded for the first 2 weeks. Money raised will be used to cover travel expenses, much needed repairs on our van so we can all travel together. Again thank you for all your love and support it means the world to know people are standing with us cheering our little heart warrior on. Love Chris, Miranda, Austin, Zac, Natalie, Presley, Rachael, Jude, Hannah, Seamus, and Henry.