Mending Oliver's Heart

Meet Mr. Oliver Lincoln Ford, born on November 4 2014. This little man made his arrival around 2pm on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon and was the most beautiful little creature we had ever seen. The first thing that came to my mind once he made his debut was, "He looks like a little smurf- He's perfect!" Obviously for the first 27 hours, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I remember poking him while he would sleep to make sure he was still breathing. In that 27th hour our whole world changed. Oliver had been taken by the lovely nurses to do his 24Hr Pulse Ox Testing (measures the oxygen level in the blood) which he failed. At that point they had done an echo and found that he had some form of CHD. Shortly after, his pediatrician showed up to talk with us about what type of CHD he had and what the next steps were. He was meda-flighted over to the Children’s Hospital and was admitted into the NICU.  Tests were run and the results were sent over to the Pediatric Cardiologist and to his Pediatrician. They found that Oliver has Tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy of Fallot is a heart defect that affects four different aspects of his heart. He has an overriding aorta(the aortic valve is enlarged and appears to arise from both the left and right ventricles instead of the left ventricle as in normal hearts), ventricular septal defect(is a hole between the right and left pumping chambers of the heart), pulmonary stenosis (narrowing of the pulmonary valve and outflow tract or area below the valve that creates an obstruction (blockage) of blood flow from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery) and right ventricular hypertrophy (thickening of the muscular walls of the right ventricle, which occurs because the right ventricle is pumping at high pressure). Obviously our world was turned upside down. This was our first child, our baby that couldn’t have been more perfect, and now were being told they are going to have to operate on his tiny heart. We spent the next 3 days in the NICU with Oliver watching monitors and spending every moment we could with him. We were so blessed that his oxygen level remained good and we were able to leave after our third day. For the past 3 months he has been our little bubble baby. Everyday that Oliver goes without having a Tet Spell(rapid drop in the amount of oxygen in the blood that ) is a BIG victory for us. Keeping Oliver healthy has been our biggest priority. We have station at our front door with hand sanitizer, lysol, masks, and gloves for his visitors. He receives a Synagis shot every 28 days to help diminish the possibility of getting RVS. He's never been to a grocery store or really outside of his home expect for his bi-weekly appointments with the pediatrician and cardiologist. Last week we received word that Oliver will have open heart surgery at the beginning of March. Please send a prayer for our sweet "blue" baby and his team of doctors that his broken heart will be mended.