Musings of a Heart Family: Meet Godzilla

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Meet Godzilla

We had such a great day today with homeschool. We went outside for science to learn how to observe. They did a great job because they found our new pet! She is a baby Anole lizard. They are very common around here. Matthew literally stalked this lizard for about ten minutes. He crawled on his belly after it while Brandon kept chasing it back to Matthew. Yay teamwork! So without further ado....Godzilla!

Here she is right after we caught her

That is a regular sized Crayola crayon! She's tiny

Her new home!

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Welcome To Our Page

This page is a place for me to empty the thoughts out of my head when they begin to overflow!

I am mom to 4 boys. Our youngest, Tommy was born with complex congenital heart defects, and cricopharyngeal achalasia (poor swallow). He was medically fragile and required a Gtube to eat, a trach to breathe and oxygen 24/7. I started this blog when he was just an infant, blogging about all of the ups and downs of our family.

Sadly, Tommy passed away in August 2008. His heart went into lethal arrhythmia from undiagnosed bronchopneumonia. Our world was shattered. I continue to blog as we adjust to life without our sweet Angel.

Tommy's Diagnosis

Tommy was born 7 weeks premature with a combination of congenital heart defects and a poor swallow. His heart diagnosis is as follows: Double Inlet Left Ventricle with Transposition of the Great Arteries, Pulmonary Stenosis, Ventricle Septal Defect, and Patent Ductus Ateriosis. This is also known as "single ventricle" or "univentricle". It basically means the blood containing oxygen and the blood without oxygen met in one place in his heart, mixed together, and recirculated. This gave him low oxygen saturation levels in his blood. His poor swallow, also know as dysphagia was caused by Cricopharyngeal Dysfunction. The muscle at the top of his esophagus worked sporadically. It caused Tommy to aspirate his saliva into his lungs. For this reason, Tommy was fed exclusively by a feeding pump. Tommy had open heart surgery at 4 weeks old, and because of his poor swallow, he could not make it off of the ventilator for 5 weeks. He required a procedure called a Tracheotomy to breathe on his own. Because of the breathing tube, he developed a condition called severe subglottic stenosis. This is scar tissue below the vocal cords. He could not breathe without his trach. The aspirations caused another condition called chronic lung disease. His brochial tissues were inflamed causing Pulmonary Hypertenison and asthma. He took a combination of medicines and required oxygen 24 hours a day.

Musings of a Heart Family

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Meet Godzilla

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Diagram of Tommy's Heart Defects

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