Tetralogy of Fallot

Noelle has Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and will need open heart surgery as soon as we get her home. This type of surgery has been very successful with babies and small children. A best case scenario will be this surgical procedure, to be completed within weeks of coming home, and then a minor cath procedure when she is a teenager. Open heart surgery will require that she is in the hospital for a week; the cath is out-patient (and who knows what miraculous advances in medicine will be made in the next 10 or so years:)). It's possible, because Noelle has been without medical treatment for almost three years (her third birthday is in July), that she will need daily medication. I am blessed with a job that has amazing health insurance, and a prescription plan that has just $3 co-pays. Also, the timing for this adoption is perfect for us, as I will have the summer off to bond with my new daughter and be with her through her surgery and as she heals. I also have the support of my extended family and that is priceless.

Noelle has two holes in her heart (one of which is keeping her alive right now), pulmonary atresia (which means the valve that regulates the blood flow from the right side of her heart to the lungs is not working properly. Instead of a valve, Noelle seems to have tissue there and so her blood is not able to pick up oxygen from her lungs very well--her body created that life-saving hole she has so that some blood is flowing through and absorbing oxygen)and a narrowing of the artery that leads to her lungs. The longer she is without medical intervention the greater the chance that her lungs will deterioriate. Medications many times can reverse this damage, and that is our prayer--that He keep her lungs healthy, and eases the burden on her heart, while she waits for us.