Hunters Tetralogy of Fallot Journey
Donation protected
Update 4/3/2020
Hunter had a good week! On Monday, March 30th, 2020 we received a phone call letting us know that the full amnio results finally came in. I have been waiting for this call for over a week! The week prior, Children’s Hospital scheduled us to meet with a genetics specialist at their facility. Due to this I knew the results had most likely came in and were not good, potentially saying that he had DiGeorge Syndrome. On Monday when I finally received the call, everything was normal! They could not find any reason for his Tetralogy, but are very hopeful now that once he overcomes the Tetralogy he will thrive! Children’s preemptively assumed that the test would come back as possible and schedule the appointment with the specialist.
Our Echocardiogram was next. We had been praying and praying that we would get some good news at this appointment. During the echo, our little guy was being his usually self and not wanting to cooperate. The tech stopped once and gave me some juice and had me walk around to try to get him into a better position, but he decided he really didn’t want to move much for this appointment. They were still able to get most of the images they needed to see how his heart is developing. After the test we meet with the cardiologist again to go over the results. The first thing she did say was he is a miracle baby in her opinion. Based on everything they were seeing, they were all positive that he would test positive for either Down Syndrome or for DiGeorge Syndrome. She honestly couldn’t believe the results but were very happy for us. She went on to say that the Tetralogy of Fallot is still there and hasn’t really changed which is good. She did say that it is a pretty “textbook” case of Tetralogy and doesn’t present any issues that they have not dealt with before. One thing that we took as good news and will keep praying is that he still has forward flow on his own. As long as this forward flow continues, he will only have to have one surgery at a few months after he is born, instead of two surgeries, one right after birth, and the one a few months down the line. She did say that the forward flow appears to be decreasing, so the possibility of the two surgeries is not off the table, but it could have also been his position during the echocardiogram making it appear less than it was 4 weeks ago.
She went over our plan over the course of the next few months as well. We will return in 4 weeks for another Echocardiogram, as well as planning with their Labor and Delivery team, meet with the surgeons that will be preforming Hunters operations, and several other appointments. She did mention that unless he decides on his own to come early, they will be inducing him on June 23rd! They are still asking for us to relocating around June 9th. Ultimately depending on if he has to have the surgery after birth will determine how long we are there this round. If he doesn’t have to have surgery, we will be able to leave the hospital within a few days and return home and wait for his big open heart surgery, making our stay round 3 weeks total. If he does have to have surgery, they believe he will be in the hospital for around 3 weeks making our total say 5 to 6 weeks. The second big open heart surgery they are still planning on us being there for about a month total.
Unfortunately this craziness with Covid has been changing our plans as well. We were planning on trying to stay at the Ronald McDonald house for our time in Denver, however this is no longer an option since they are not accepting any new families and we are expected to try to figure out housing on our own now. Any help at all would greatly appreciated!
Original Post:
Travis and Ashleigh Foster have been very blessed and were very excited to announce the coming arrival of their first child, a son they will be naming Hunter in June 2020. Unfortunately during this time that should be one of the happiest of their lives, they received some extremely devastating news.
At a routine 20 week ultrasound, the Doctors found some concerning items on baby Hunters heart and ordered an Echo-cardiogram at Children's Hospital in Aurora, CO.
On February 28th, the team at Children's Hospital diagnosed baby Hunter with a very serious and very rare Congenital Heart Defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy of Fallot is a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects that are present at birth. The four conditions are:
Pulmonary valve stenosis. Pulmonary valve stenosis is a narrowing of the pulmonary valve — the valve that separates the lower right chamber of the heart from the main blood vessel leading to the lungs (pulmonary artery). Narrowing of the pulmonary valve reduces blood flow to the lungs. The narrowing might also affect the muscle beneath the pulmonary valve. In some severe cases, the pulmonary valve doesn't form properly and causes reduced blood flow to the lungs.
Ventricular septal defect. A ventricular septal defect is a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers of the heart — the left and right ventricles. The hole allows deoxygenated blood in the right ventricle — blood that has circulated through the body and is returning to the lungs to replenish its oxygen supply — to flow into the left ventricle and mix with oxygenated blood fresh from the lungs. Blood from the left ventricle also flows back to the right ventricle in an inefficient manner. This ability for blood to flow through the ventricular septal defect reduces the supply of oxygenated blood to the body and eventually can weaken the heart.
Overriding aorta. Normally the aorta — the main artery leading out to the body — branches off the left ventricle. In tetralogy of Fallot, the aorta is shifted slightly to the right and lies directly above the ventricular septal defect. In this position the aorta receives blood from both the right and left ventricles, mixing the oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle with the oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle.
Right ventricular hypertrophy. When the heart's pumping action is overworked, it causes the muscular wall of the right ventricle to thicken. Over time this might cause the heart to stiffen, become weak and eventually fail.
These defects, which affect the structure of the heart, cause oxygen-poor blood to flow out of the heart and to the rest of the body. Infants and children with tetralogy of Fallot usually have blue-tinged skin because their blood doesn't carry enough oxygen.
Due to this serious, Hunter will have to be delivered at Children's Hospital in Aurora and immediately be admitted to the CICU where he will undergo two different open heart operations in his first few months of life. The first operation which he will undergo at just a few days of life is a temporary fix until he is strong enough to overcome the larger more intrusive operation at a few weeks to a few months old.
Hunter and his family will be spending several months at Children's Hospital in Aurora, CO and will be losing a significant portion of their income during this time as well as during Hunters recovery period.
Please follow Hunter and his family's journey by visiting www.momoftof.com
Any prayers, support, or financial contributions are greatly appreciated. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Foster Family to help during this difficult time.
If you would prefer to show your support by purchasing a T-shirt please visit: www.bonfire.com/hunters-tetralogy-of-fallot-journey.
Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Hunter had a good week! On Monday, March 30th, 2020 we received a phone call letting us know that the full amnio results finally came in. I have been waiting for this call for over a week! The week prior, Children’s Hospital scheduled us to meet with a genetics specialist at their facility. Due to this I knew the results had most likely came in and were not good, potentially saying that he had DiGeorge Syndrome. On Monday when I finally received the call, everything was normal! They could not find any reason for his Tetralogy, but are very hopeful now that once he overcomes the Tetralogy he will thrive! Children’s preemptively assumed that the test would come back as possible and schedule the appointment with the specialist.
Our Echocardiogram was next. We had been praying and praying that we would get some good news at this appointment. During the echo, our little guy was being his usually self and not wanting to cooperate. The tech stopped once and gave me some juice and had me walk around to try to get him into a better position, but he decided he really didn’t want to move much for this appointment. They were still able to get most of the images they needed to see how his heart is developing. After the test we meet with the cardiologist again to go over the results. The first thing she did say was he is a miracle baby in her opinion. Based on everything they were seeing, they were all positive that he would test positive for either Down Syndrome or for DiGeorge Syndrome. She honestly couldn’t believe the results but were very happy for us. She went on to say that the Tetralogy of Fallot is still there and hasn’t really changed which is good. She did say that it is a pretty “textbook” case of Tetralogy and doesn’t present any issues that they have not dealt with before. One thing that we took as good news and will keep praying is that he still has forward flow on his own. As long as this forward flow continues, he will only have to have one surgery at a few months after he is born, instead of two surgeries, one right after birth, and the one a few months down the line. She did say that the forward flow appears to be decreasing, so the possibility of the two surgeries is not off the table, but it could have also been his position during the echocardiogram making it appear less than it was 4 weeks ago.
She went over our plan over the course of the next few months as well. We will return in 4 weeks for another Echocardiogram, as well as planning with their Labor and Delivery team, meet with the surgeons that will be preforming Hunters operations, and several other appointments. She did mention that unless he decides on his own to come early, they will be inducing him on June 23rd! They are still asking for us to relocating around June 9th. Ultimately depending on if he has to have the surgery after birth will determine how long we are there this round. If he doesn’t have to have surgery, we will be able to leave the hospital within a few days and return home and wait for his big open heart surgery, making our stay round 3 weeks total. If he does have to have surgery, they believe he will be in the hospital for around 3 weeks making our total say 5 to 6 weeks. The second big open heart surgery they are still planning on us being there for about a month total.
Unfortunately this craziness with Covid has been changing our plans as well. We were planning on trying to stay at the Ronald McDonald house for our time in Denver, however this is no longer an option since they are not accepting any new families and we are expected to try to figure out housing on our own now. Any help at all would greatly appreciated!
Original Post:
Travis and Ashleigh Foster have been very blessed and were very excited to announce the coming arrival of their first child, a son they will be naming Hunter in June 2020. Unfortunately during this time that should be one of the happiest of their lives, they received some extremely devastating news.
At a routine 20 week ultrasound, the Doctors found some concerning items on baby Hunters heart and ordered an Echo-cardiogram at Children's Hospital in Aurora, CO.
On February 28th, the team at Children's Hospital diagnosed baby Hunter with a very serious and very rare Congenital Heart Defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy of Fallot is a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects that are present at birth. The four conditions are:
Pulmonary valve stenosis. Pulmonary valve stenosis is a narrowing of the pulmonary valve — the valve that separates the lower right chamber of the heart from the main blood vessel leading to the lungs (pulmonary artery). Narrowing of the pulmonary valve reduces blood flow to the lungs. The narrowing might also affect the muscle beneath the pulmonary valve. In some severe cases, the pulmonary valve doesn't form properly and causes reduced blood flow to the lungs.
Ventricular septal defect. A ventricular septal defect is a hole in the wall that separates the two lower chambers of the heart — the left and right ventricles. The hole allows deoxygenated blood in the right ventricle — blood that has circulated through the body and is returning to the lungs to replenish its oxygen supply — to flow into the left ventricle and mix with oxygenated blood fresh from the lungs. Blood from the left ventricle also flows back to the right ventricle in an inefficient manner. This ability for blood to flow through the ventricular septal defect reduces the supply of oxygenated blood to the body and eventually can weaken the heart.
Overriding aorta. Normally the aorta — the main artery leading out to the body — branches off the left ventricle. In tetralogy of Fallot, the aorta is shifted slightly to the right and lies directly above the ventricular septal defect. In this position the aorta receives blood from both the right and left ventricles, mixing the oxygen-poor blood from the right ventricle with the oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle.
Right ventricular hypertrophy. When the heart's pumping action is overworked, it causes the muscular wall of the right ventricle to thicken. Over time this might cause the heart to stiffen, become weak and eventually fail.
These defects, which affect the structure of the heart, cause oxygen-poor blood to flow out of the heart and to the rest of the body. Infants and children with tetralogy of Fallot usually have blue-tinged skin because their blood doesn't carry enough oxygen.
Due to this serious, Hunter will have to be delivered at Children's Hospital in Aurora and immediately be admitted to the CICU where he will undergo two different open heart operations in his first few months of life. The first operation which he will undergo at just a few days of life is a temporary fix until he is strong enough to overcome the larger more intrusive operation at a few weeks to a few months old.
Hunter and his family will be spending several months at Children's Hospital in Aurora, CO and will be losing a significant portion of their income during this time as well as during Hunters recovery period.
Please follow Hunter and his family's journey by visiting www.momoftof.com
Any prayers, support, or financial contributions are greatly appreciated. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Foster Family to help during this difficult time.
If you would prefer to show your support by purchasing a T-shirt please visit: www.bonfire.com/hunters-tetralogy-of-fallot-journey.
Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Organizer and beneficiary
Ashleigh Foster
Organizer
Wellington, CO
Travis Foster
Beneficiary