First Post and Background

Hey Everyone-
As it comes up in conversations, some of you are aware of what is going on lately, others don't, and I am starting this blog so that I can keep everyone consistently updated on what is going on, as it pertains to Gillian's condition.
I posted some links to the right of this page that give a very description and pictorial of the heart defect that Gillian was born with, called Truncus Arteriosus. The flash pictures show what the before and after surgery depictions better than I can describe.
Gillian has been visiting cardiologist annually since her initial corrective surgery when she was only 2 weeks old. Way back then, the doctors told us that she would need to have her conduit replaced when she was 9-12 years old. Every year, I would sit at the edge of my seat, wondering what the diagnosis of her condition would be. Within the last few years, we had been aware that her transplanted conduit was degrading, building up with blockage, and leaking. Last year the cardiologist informed us that although Gillian was big enough to receive an adult-sized conduit, they wanted to wait as long as it was safe, to minimize the number of surgeries Gillian would need in her lifetime. Last month, her cardiologist gave us the news that her right ventrical is enlarged as it is attempting to pump blood through the conduit that is now too small and too blocked, and it is time for her surgery to replace this conduit.

On Tuesday, April 15, We will go to UCSF to have a cardiac MRI performed. This will give the doctors a very good picture of her heart and conduit before they do the surgery. Once they have this imaging done, we will schedule her surgery. We hope to be able to schedule her surgery this summer when she is out of school.

After our visit on April 15, I will have an update to post to this blog.

I have never done a blog before, but it did seem to be the best way, as I said, to give everyone a consistent update. You can subscribe to this blog and get updates as I publish them.

Thank you everyone for your support.

Ron