Belle Update: Apr 10

Day 12 at Sick Kids. 

Belle has an unusual amount of fractures throughout her body, so we sat down with someone from genetics in order to go in-depth (on both sides of our family history) and discuss other possibilities as to why she might have such fragile bones. No one in our family lineage has any kind of condition that would explain it. It might be that she simply has a severe form of osteopenia. It's hard to say for sure. 

Nonetheless, we gave our consent for Arabella to get her heel pricked so that they can obtain a blood sample for testing. It's unlikely that she has a genetic disorder, but it made us feel very uneasy.

Sometimes your mind will take you to dark places, but we're doing our best stay hopeful. It's all we can do.

Arabella had another heart echo done this morning. The result came in this evening, and her PDA remains unchanged. We're still hoping for surgery this week, but we're not sure exactly which day.

There was a new lead doctor on staff today. It sounded like she was pushing for surgery as soon as possible. Doctors typically switch every two weeks, so she was just getting to know Arabella and her medical history. 

Later this evening when we went to see Belle again, her electrocardiogram (also known as ECG, or EKG) was quite unusual.

There was an abnormality in her heart rhythm (the top green line) and we had a doctor and a few techs come by to take a look at her. Her breathing looked heavy, and we basically had no idea what was going on. Again, the mind took us to a dark place, and we felt sick to our stomachs. 

Things like this happen from time to time, but it's been a while since we've seen her heart beat so irregularly. After some time, her heart rate settled, but we were still uneasy as we left the hospital.

Today just wasn't our day, but the sun will rise again tomorrow.