The Story

Late Thursday evening, a nurse at Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Springdale informed us that Brycen had a heart murmur. This news came as a shock to us as he had passed all examinations throughout the day with flying colors. On Friday morning, we asked for Dr Livingston to please investigate the murmur. After Brycen's routine evaluation Friday morning, Dr Livingston told us that there was definitely a heart murmur. He described that one of two things was causing the murmur and neither one was severe and are very common in newborns. The first scenario (pardon my lack of medical term knowledge) was that a valve in his heart that normally closes right after birth was still open and allowing bloodflow to the wrong area of the heart. This condition is present in most newborns and the valve usually closes in 7 to 10 days, we would just continue monitoring the situation. The second scenario was the possibility of a "hole" in the heart. If this was the case, it too would be monitored and as the heart muscle grew, the hole would eventually be covered up. So, in order to determine which of the two cases the murmur might be, Dr Livingston wanted to do an echo (ultrasound) of Brycen's heart.

During the ultrasound, Dr Livingston called on a neonatal doctor to help with diagnosis. Dr. Waggle found in the ultrasound that Brycen barely had a pulse in his legs and lower extremities. Because neither doctor is a cardiologist, they could not officially diagnose the condition, but gave us their best "educated guess." What they thought was that the murmur was being caused by the valve not closing up, however, that was Brycen's true blessing because another problem had been discovered. Dr. Waggle believed that the new problem was "coarctation of the aorta." In simple terms: Brycen's aorta was narrowing and not allowing enough blood to pass through, so only his upper body was getting an efficient supply of blood. With this discovery, Dr Waggle recommended that Brycen be flown immediately to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. The nursery at Willow Creek was vacated and all of the doctors and nurses gave their full and undivided attention to Brycen to prepare him for his flight on the Angel One Helicopter. As they started his medication, his vital numbers started to increase and Dr Waggled assured us that his "educated guess" was on target. He assured us the condition was not life threatening at the moment and that we needed to get on the road to Little Rock. Christy and I met with the flight team, and basically signed his life to their hands, then we began the drive down as he boarded the Helicopter.

Brycen arrived at Children's about 45 mins later and did excellent on the flight. As we were exiting onto I 430, the staff in NICU at Children's called our cell phone to inform us that Brycen had arrived and had already gone through their set of examinations and he was doing GREAT. When we got to the hospital we were able to see Brycen right away and talk with his doctor in NICU, Dr Ross.

Dr Ross told us that the "guess" of Dr Waggle was very close, but the 4-D ultrasound at Children's allowed their team to see Brycen's heart from more angles, and the problem was that his heart has an "Interrupted Aortic Arch." Here is my best attempt to describe the condition. The PDA valve (causing the murmur) in an infants heart allows blood to flow through the heart while the child is in the womb. This is because the child isn't actually breathing and so the valve allows the blood to continually flow without passing through the lungs. At birth, this valve should close, which creates a new path to the aorta so blood can go through the whole body. With Brycen, not only did the valve not close, but it detached from the aorta. Thus, he barley has any blood running through his "main line" and one side of his heart is still having to help pump blood through his whole body instead of just pumping it a short distance to his lungs. But thank goodness it remains open, because he is getting an adequate amount of bloodflow, he's just having to work overtime to get it there. The only thing that kept him alive was the valve that caused the murmur not closing.

The condition requires an extensive surgery and Brycen will have to remain in the NICU for 2 to 3 weeks before he will fully recover. At this time, the condition is not life threatening.

Children's Hospital is VERY strict on visitation and cell phone use in the building is rarely permitted and when we can use them, the signal is very weak. So, we will try and update this blog as much as we can to keep everyone informed. Please check back often and inform others of the news as well.

Christy and I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and support. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends. We love you all!!!!!!!