Welcome to our Blog For Taylor

Hi. Welcome to our blog for Taylor - Keeping Tabs on Taylor. We hope this will help us to keep all of our friends and family updated on Taylor's progress with her surgeries and health.

This week (it is only Wednesday) has been a whirlwind of information and activity since our initial appointment with the cardiologist on Monday afternoon, to admission to Fairfax Hospital, to a surgery date set for first thing on Friday (2/27) morning.

We greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, love, prayers and offers of assistance we have received. We are working on getting organized and will gratefully take you up on your genorousity very soon.

To explain Taylor's diagnosis as simply as possible: She has three working chambers of her heart - the right ventricle is underdeveloped and essentially non-functional. Her "great veins", the largest blood vessels are connected in the wrong place - to the one functioning ventricle. Her pulminary artery is significantly enlarged, as much of her blood is heading to the lungs. This is putting a lot of stress on her lungs and causing her some breathing problems. If you want to do some research look up congenital heart defects or disease and look up tricuspid atresia. You will likely see a multi-step surgical repair plan starting with a Pulminary Band procedure. Taylor is having that Friday.

The goal of the Pulminary Band surgery is to lessen the pressure to the lungs from the enlarged artery and allow the lungs to stop working so hard due to excess blood flow. Once the lungs are relaxed and the blood vessels back to normal, Taylor will undergo a second surgery to redirect blood flow in and out of her heart. The scheduling of this surgery will completely depend on how her lungs respond and how quickly the pressure is lessened - likely months from now.

The doctors here are amazing, take a lot of time with us and are confident in their work. We feel blessed to have their attention and to have access to such fantastic care for our baby girl.