Update on Parker

So I thought I would post a little of what is going on in our lives right now with Parker. Parker was born on Monday March 16 at 4:50pm at Aultman hospital. He was 3 weeks early & weighed 7lb 1oz. We delivered early because we didn't want a repeat of the problems I had with Zachary. When the pediatrician did her assessment of Parker she noticed that the pulses in his legs were extremely weak. Usually that is a sign that something is wrong with the heart so she had the cardiologist check him out. On Tuesday & Wednesday they ran some tests, an EKG & an Echo which showed that he has a coarctation of the aorta. Coarctation of the aorta is congenital heart defect (not hereditary) involving a narrowing of the aorta, the main blood vessel carrying blood from the left ventricle of the heart. This causes the left ventricle to work harder, since it has to generate a higher pressure than normal to force blood through the narrow part of the aorta to the lower part of the body. Parker's narrowing is moderate. It's not severe in that he shows any symptoms other than the weak pulses but it is definitely something that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. Aultman hospital doesn't do this kind of surgery so we made an apt with Dr BenShachar at Akron Children's Hospital on Monday the 23rd. They did another Echo & EKG and decided to admit Parker for observation. The heart center at Children's has 9 cardiologist & they all get together every Wednesday to discuss their cases. They decided to keep Parker in until Friday & then do another Echo. The Echo showed that nothing had changed or gotten worse so they let us come home until surgery on April 6. Surgery should take care of the problem & Parker should be able to live a normal life. I will try to post more later.