"Miracles Do Happen"

Today we had another fetal echo scheduled to see how the hole in Rosalie's heart has progressed over the past couple months.  You may remember that at our first fetal echo, we learned that Rosie had an inlet ventricular septal defect (VSD).  The doctor told us that it was "very large" and that "the textbook says holes this large will not repair themselves."  Wow.  That was a shock.  Our little angel was going to need open heart surgery around 4 months of age.  They also had a hard time getting a certain view of her heart at our first echo, so we were unsure as to whether or not there were any other issues lurking that we didn't know about yet.

I did everything I could to prepare myself for my daughter's heart surgery.  I did all sorts of research and read through blogs of people who had children go through similar surgeries. The pictures of little babies with a huge scar on their chest and tubes and wires hooked up everywhere were not easy to look at, but I felt that I had to in order to prepare myself appropriately for what was to come.  My coworker even connected me with her brother-in-law who's son had this procedure.  I was prepared for her to look a little blue.  I was prepared for difficulties in feeding her.  I was prepared for her being out of breath.  I wasn't thrilled about the whole thing, but I was prepared.

We went into our appointment today hoping that things had not worsened and that no new problems were detected.  We were happy to have the same sonographer as last time!  She is very kind and seems to do a great job.  In the beginning, little Miss Swanberg was not very cooperative, but over the course of the appointment, she decided to give in and take some great pictures for us.

When Dr. Zilberman came in to review the images, he was pretty quiet.  Finally he said, "I don't see a hole here."  Caleb and I were stunned!  "Is he kidding?" I thought.  Of course he wasn't kidding, Pediatric Cardiologists do not joke about these things.  We waited a bit longer in silence as he looked at more pictures.  Maybe the angle was not right on those initial pictures.  He spoke again, "These are beautiful images and I really do not see a hole."  Could it be?  Could this hole have closed on it's own?  He told us that he couldn't rule out smaller holes at this point, but there was certainly nothing major we needed to worry about.  We nervously started laughing and told him that this was not the news we had been expecting.  We were told at our last appointment that the hole was so large it would not close on it's own.  He responded, "Miracles do happen.  I see no large inlet VSD here."

This is the first time I've ever had a doctor use the word "miracle" while talking to me and it took my breath away.  Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I feel like this isn't a word they use frequently.  It must truly mean that the "large inlet VSD" should not have closed on it's own.  Our little Rosie is doing miraculous things already!  I absolutely believe that this happened as a result of all the prayers people have been sending our way.  So thank you, everyone, for your prayers.  Please keep them coming.  Who knows what else this little girl will accomplish!

God is good.  Please thank Him for our miracle!