Arielle was seen by the cardiologist on July 20. They did another EKG, (her 3rd), and they also did another chest x-ray, not a pleasant experience for an infant, as they place her in a bizarre looking, hard (cold) clear plastic device that pins her arms above her head. (Amanda said it looked like one of the crazy contraptions out of "Around the World in 80 Days".) The doctor did say that he was encouraged that her heart has not enlarged further.

He also said that if she was going to show signs of difficulty breathing due to this particular hole, that [most likely] would have happened by now. He also said she doesn't seem to be having any "failure to thrive" problems. At almost 3 months old, she weighs 9 1/2 lbs. and although that is small, she's still in the 25th percentile, which is where she was on her last appointment, so she's consistant in her growth and smiles a lot now. She laughed for the first time, too. We could almost forget there is anything wrong going on in there except that you can feel it on her tiny chest and still hear the "swishing" sound instead of "thumping".

Now here is the "but"...

Being a "moderate" sized hole (3-4 mm) that hasn't gotten any smaller, it doesn't look like it will close on it's own. And more important, the location of the hole, right next to a valve, could cause another problem. Depending how strong the flow of blood is through the hole, it could cause the valve to get "stuck" open, or not completely close. (I'm paraphrasing here! I'm not doctor!)

So we need to keep watching for symptoms that something is wrong, which would be difficulty breathing, which would in turn make her have difficulty eating and she'd be really fussy.

So right now, we can expect surgery by the time she's 2 or 3 years old. But that gives us plenty of time to pray for a miracle, right?

Her next appointment is October 12.

Thanks, everyone, for your support!