Medical Update on Our Oldest

Tim ~ Timothy was a Tetrology of Fallot baby and had his corrective surgery at 6 months of age. He survived the surgery, but his heart has never pumped completely right since, so he had a pacemaker inserted 10 days after his corrective surgery at 6 months of age. Recently, he was diagnosed with a mild case of congestive heart failure (or at least that is what it looks like on tests, but may well be his unique heart's way of functioning). Duke is now treating him for congestive heart failure since his heart is showing lots of stress. He had his 6 month check-up at Duke this week. The doctor was mostly pleased with the progress of the first medicine on Timothy's tired heart. He decided to add a second medication to help the heart muscle relax and encourage his heart's poor functioning level to remain the same for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, this cocktail of medications will prevent any further decline. On a bright note, his heart looked the same (it wasn't enlarged or showing new issues) on all echocardiograms stretching back to 2012 so we are in a good holding pattern. His heart rate was 52 almost functioning beats per minute (under the pacemaker's steady beats). I say "almost functioning beats", because they are not completely on rhythm with each other but are good enough to keep the blood flowing with a bit of backwash. Hopefully, his body will tolerate the new medication, and we can avoid surgery until his next pacemaker placement in about 18 months. At that time he will probably get a much more advanced pacemaker to continue reducing the stress on his heart. Medical advancements are amazing and God is good! We are blessed to have had him all of these years!

All the pictures posted below are from the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. It was an overcast day and we only had time to explore a tiny corner of the garden, but we loved it. What a perfect place to kill time between medical appointments at Duke. We will return to this enchanting place.

Blessings, Dawn