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Serena Leigh came in the world on January 22,2002. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. She was beautiful. Immediately after giving birth she was whisked to the Special Care Nursery of Woman and Infant's Hospital. We were already prepared for what was to come.
When I was 20 weeks pregnant she was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome. For the next 20 weeks I read as much as I could about this and went to numerous doctor appointments. I wanted to know what would happen to her once she was here.
Serena spent one day in the Special Care Nursery and then she was transported to Boston's Children's Hospital were she would have her surgery. The following day she had her first catheterization where it was decided by her doctors that they would try to create an outflow patch to get blood to her small right ventricle. The following morning I held my baby for a few minutes, then watched as they took her away not knowing if she would return. We had hourly updates by the nurse liaison and about half way through we found out they decided it was too risky of a procedure and they just went ahead with the B-T Shunt. After 4 more days in the CICU she was transferred to recovery. Three days later we went home.
Only two short months separated the time between surgery number one and number two. In March it was decided Serena needed to have her Glenn procedure earlier then expected. On May 07, 2002 Serena went back to Children's and had her Glenn. 5 days later she was home again. Other than slight high blood pressure and some belly problems, she is doing well. Serena is steadily gaining weight. Her local cardiologist keeps monthly tabs on her and he says she is doing wonderful. At last check she had saturations in the 90's and she weighed 12 lbs. 15 oz. She is our little fighter. She has to be to keep up with her 7 year old brother.
