Our beautiful baby boy Nicolas Lee was born on 4/13/2001. He was perfect in every sense of the word. He weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21 ? in. long with big beautiful blue eyes. His Apgar score was a 10. The pediatrician told us he had a heart murmur. We weren't very concerned because his big brother also had a murmur when he was born and we were told it would go away?which it did.
At his 2 week check up the pediatrician said he still had a murmur and gave us the number to the pediatric cardiologist. He had no signs of a heart problem and he was off the charts on both height and weight and ate like a champ. Things were great for the next six months.
Finally, at six months, the cardiologist wanted to do an echocardiogram since the murmur was not going away. We had to wait overnight hoping it was just a little hole that would close by itself. Well our worst fears came true the next day. The cardiologist said Nic had Tetralogy of Fallot and would need open heart surgery. Our world was shattered. For the next few days we spent a lot of time on the computer trying to find out all we could about TOF. The doctor who would perform the surgery was Dr. Alfredo Trento at Cedars Sinai in West Hollywood. He was very highly recommended.
The surgery lasted 5 ? hours. The hardest part was giving our perfectly healthy looking boy to the nurse before the surgery. Up until that point, we were in denial. When he went into surgery, we had a lot of family there to support us. That helped a lot. The surgery went great and the doctor said he was going to be fine. We finally got to see him. He looked much better than I expected hooked up to the tubes and monitors. He was in the ICU for two days and was progressing well. My wife never left his side. It was hard for me to leave him, but we had another son at home who was too young to understand. He was doing so good that after three days he got to come home. The only meds he was on were Lasix and Tylenol. He is such a strong little guy. After only a week or so at home he was already crawling around.
We had his 1st birthday party and it was just great. When everybody sang happy birthday I saw my wife get a little teary eyed and so did I. We have come so far through our strength and love as a family. He loves his big brother and follows him around everywhere. Sometimes we forget he had a heart problem because he is so outgoing and fearless and unless you see his scar you would never know. He has the biggest blue eyes and the best smile you have ever seen. We can't imagine life without him. He still has to see the cardiologist for check ups but he said he is doing great. The doctor said, "If Nicolas came to me in fifteen years and said I want to be a pro football player, I'd say go for it." It was a tough thing for us as parents to go through, but when we see him playing hockey with his big brother we are very proud of the strength and courage that he has. We are very blessed.
