Lindsay in 1996 with whom I believe is Dr. Nichols who has been her doctor since she was bornLindsay’s surgery went really well and her heart is repaired and pumping normally. Lindsay was born with Transposition of the Great Vessels, which according to my knowledge, means that her aorta and pulmonary arteries were switched. For a normal heart, we have a weak side and a strong side. The strong side pumps blood to our body which needs a lot of energy, the weak side pumps somewhere else, but I wasn’t listening so I don’t know where that is (I’m guessing the lungs?). Lindsay’s is switched, so for her whole life, the weak side of her heart has been doing, or trying to do the job of the strong side and the side that is supposed to be strong has been doing very little. That’s why she gets so tired because her body doesn’t get enough oxygen pumped to it. I need to find more information, but haven’t looked it up yet. But if I did look it up, I’d start with Transposition of the Great Vessels.
This is Lindsay just 5 days old (the back of the picture says "Portland after her Balloon Septostomy - December 1979")When Lindsay was born in 1979, they hadn’t yet started doing the surgery to switch these vessels back to normal. So when Lindsay was 3 months old, they did her first open-heart surgery and put a baffle in her heart to do who knows what? Anyone feel free to comment if you actually know. Lindsay’s lips were always purple when she was little and she couldn’t run or do her Glory of Love number more than 2 times without getting a cough that would last for 2 months.
Lindsay 1988 at St. Luke's for Catheter
Lindsay always got the big presents (1989)
Lindsay 1996 (she still went to Girls League that night at the high school, but I know that our cousin Stacy was hovering over her so she'd be alright)Lindsay has just been living like this for the last 26 years. So in March 2005, Lindsay had her second open-heart surgery to put a band around the pulmonary artery so it would work harder and get stronger so that it could handle the duties it was supposed to do after the vessels were switched.
In February of this year, Lindsay had her third open-heart surgery just to tighten the band. Is that irritating to anyone else? I was thinking that they should have just sewed a string outside of her body and pulled it a few times to tighten it instead of having to do the hugely invasive open-heart surgery again!
August 2005I just talked to Mom (I woke Keith up a while ago), who is in California with Dad as well. She said that they are keeping Lindsay heavily sedated today so that the tubes in her nose and throat won’t bug her. I know she hates those. But she said that everything is going really well and Lindsay looks good.
I was telling Mom how surreal this is to me right now. It kind of seems like this surgery crept up on me too fast and I can’t actually imagine Lindsay laying there recovering from her 4th open-heart surgery. I hate the idea of her having to go through this, but I’m also grateful that it’s happening (if I could just wrap my mind around it for a second). I know that I have no idea how Lindsay feels. Who really does? I do know that I’m so excited for her to fully recover from this surgery and surpass the quality of life that she’s had in the past. I’m excited for that phone call I get from her in the next few months telling me that she ran up the stairs without having to take a nap afterwards or how she felt energetic and walked to the park to play with Monty and Maddie. How great is that going to be? I can’t wait for her to feel the difference. I love my baby sister!
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