Medical Update On Maya

We had a phone call today with Dr. Jennifer Chambers with the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham. It was so good to talk with a professional that could really decipher everything we were reading in these two pages of Bulgarian-translated-into-English-and-hope-its-right blabber. Here's what we've found out . . . Her heart condition is a little more complicated than we first thought. I had a gut feeling about this when we were in Bulgaria after talking with a pediatrician there. However, more complicated doesn't mean less manageable. Her condition has improved greatly over the past couple of years, since she had surgery to correct her Tetralogy of Fallot. You can read the specifics on this if you'll follow this link: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tetralogy-of-fallot/DS00615/DSECTION=causes.

  As of now, the general plan once we get her home is to meet first with a pediatric cardiologist at UAB. We intend to use Dr. Colvin because of our pleasant experience with him when he saw me during my pregnancy with the twins. He'll perform an ultrasound on her heart, and she'll also undergo a heart catheterization so that he can see exactly how her heart functions. That will determine what kind of treatment she'll require from that point on. She's currently taking two medications for her heart, and Dr. Chambers is encouraging us to be pretty insistent with the orphanage about being able to take away a month's worth of medicine when we leave the country. This is because of the variances in dosages when converting from European medicine to American medicine. Once we get her home and know better what we're looking at, we can then make the necessary adjustments in dealing with medications for her.

  Because I'm such a 'big picture' person, I asked the question that I wasn't sure about asking. But, I wanted to know. I asked Dr. Chambers what effect this would have on her life expectancy. As of right now, with what information she has, she doesn't expect a drastic change in how long Maya should typically live. However, we won't know anything for sure until this ultrasound and heart cath is done. That will tell us so much that we're not sure about right now. She did say she would expect that, at some point, Maya will probably have to have her pulmonary valve replaced, but no other specifics are going to be know until we begin her treatment.

Most other things we talked about dealt with her development. Straight up? She's underdeveloped. She's mentally and physically at the point of a 9-month-old. That doesn't scare me, though. Once we get her home, I have no doubt that things will begin to change for the better very quickly. The scariest part to me was what to feed her, especially while we're in country. Because she's never had solid food, Dr. Chambers suggested keeping her on whatever disgusting stuff she guzzles down with that bottle. Or maybe even taking American formula with us, thickening it with a bland rice cereal. Yes. Remember my post about the non-identifiable nastiness from that bottle? Once we're home, we'll hit the feeding issue pretty hard so we can begin to get good nutrition in her little body.

If you saw my Facebook post earlier this week, you know that we're excited about where things are in the process right now. We know that things could slow down at any given time, but we're very encouraged and pleased with the speed of things. God has given us sweet patience in knowing that his timing is perfect in all things. Continue sending prayers for Maya, that she stays healthy, safe, and strong until its her turn to feel the arms of her mama and daddy again.

Love,

Paige