Their HEARTS my whole WORLD

Hello, my name is Courtney Scholz. I am a wife to my wonderful husband Doug and a mother to my amazing daughter Amelia, but this isnt my story it is theirs...




Lets go back about 28 years ago when my husband was diagnosed with supra valvular aortic stenosis, this is the narrowing of the exit of the left ventricle of the heart and it also can occur at the aortic valve as well. The only way of fixing this problem is through open heart surgery. Douglas got a blood infection which caused an anurism leading him to have his open heart surgery at the very young age of three. Since then Doug has had to have stents put into his valves, has suffered a stroke, and has had several procedures. He is still going through these problems. Douglas is now thirty one years old and has just recently had to have a heart catheterization to balloon his stents open (the stents that were put in his valves at thirteen) and the procedure failed. They showed no sign of progression in trying to open those stents. Doug has blockage in the arteries leading up to his brain along with 100% blockage in the artery leading to his left arm. We were just informed today that Douglas will more than likely need open heart surgery to fix his heart properly by complete reconstruction of his aorta. His cardiologisits has talked to a colieuge of his at Harvard and has a whole medical team at Duke going over Dougs case. Duke is where Doug has all of his paperwork and where he has had two procedures. The surgery that Doug will be having requires a minumum of two weeks in the hospital more than likely a month, along with three months out of work after that to recover. In this time my daughter and I will be with my husband for his surgery and complete recovery wherever that may be considering they want Doug in the best hospital for his special case. I will be unable to work during this time needing to be by my husbands side, we will need financial help for a place to stay, medical bills, all of our eating expense, not to mention that we are already $10,000 in medical expense debt. That leads me to my next story of my sweet daughter Amelia.
    Amelia is a bright, sweet, intellegent, full of life four month old baby girl. She has a smile that will melt a room and a giggle that is contagious. Our daughter Amelia unfortunantley was born with the same exact congenital heart defect that her daddy has. Yes, at the young age of four months old we were told that our daughter, too will be having an open heart surgery to fix the narrowing of her aorta and the pulminary arteries leading to her brain. She to has supra valvular aortic stenosis. We were told that this was not hereditary and that there was an extremly slim chance of Amelia getting it we even had to see a specialty docotor when Amelia was still in utero to look over her heart and he couldnt make out anything because everything was still so little. Amelia has a cardiologists that she has already seen twice for her heart and has had two echocardiograms (ultra sounds of the heart) with him and she has also already been put to sleep at a visit we had to make to UNC Chapel Hill for her to have another echocardiogram and an MRI. It devestated us to hear the news that in the near future projected 6 months to a year our sweet baby will under go an extremly big procedure, then not shortly after to find out that her daddy has to go under the same procedure again 28 years later. Her stay will be an even longer one after her surgery, probably more around the lines of six- eight weeks and then a slow recovery after that. Amelia will be going to Duke within the next couple of months to under go more testing to confirm our next steps and see exactly when this procedure needs to be done. There are three stages of the severity of the heart... mild, moderate and severe; Amelia's heart is classified as moderate. We will have to act sooner than later according to our cardiologist. We are very strong believers, we pray every day and every night and thats what keeps our heads up. We will need help for housing while at the hospitals for each surgery, financial help for food to eat while there, along with medical bill expenses that we already have 10,000 dollars of, and also help paying some of our personal bills while my husband and I will be out of work. Thank you for taking the time to read my story on my husband's and daughter's obstacles they face. Prayers are very much appreciated. A million thank you's!
With Love, 
The Scholz Family