CLOSED!

I remember gettings Brooke's medical referral and thinking it looked good - no major issues. When we saw her, other than what looked like to be an outtie belly button, she looked good too. She was verbal, mobile, eating, drinking -- good! And then when we were leaving Almaty with her, at the medical clinic check out, that Dr. said something that should have raised some red flags, but it was a whirl-wind and we were anxious to get her home.

Within minutes of being home, my cousin (who is a Physician's Assistance), checked her out and said she heard something in Brooke's heart. We were 30+ hours of travel, no sleep and just happy to be home with two kids that again, the red flags weren't totally going off.

But a few days later at her check up with our doctor, she said there was definitely something going on with Brooke's heart. That is when the panic set in. We got referred to the head of pediatric cardiologists - Dr. Chang. After echos and EKGs, we learned Brooke had VSD - a hole in part of her heart. The good news was she wasn't showing any symptoms and she was acting normal. So we monitored her with check ups with Dr. Chang every 6 months.

At Brooke's 3 year old check up, our pediatrician couldn't hear anything with her heart. Dr. Chang later explained the hole was closing and pulled her appointments out to every year.

And today, he called with disappointing news that he won't get to see her again because the hole in her heart is totally, completely, 100% CLOSED!!!!!

This little girl will never know the difference. She'll never know that no matter what she was doing, there was always a shadow in my mind of "what if something goes wrong with her heart". She'll never know before signing any school or activity paperwork, I had to disclose her medical condition. She'll never know the pity or shock looks I would get when I told people she had VSD.

And I'm SO grateful!