Nika's Heart

When we adopted Nika, her medical records reflected that she had a 3.5mm Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) at birth. This is the same defect Payton had, although hers was much smaller and had closed by six months of age. We knew there was a possibility that Nika's VSD would still be there, but we also hoped that it would have closed by now ... and it has! The cardiologist did an echocardiogram today and there is no indication of a VSD ... great news!

But ... yes, there is always a BUT ... she does have a leaky valve, which we did not expect. Her valves look normal, but one is leaking mildly. The official diagnosis is Aortic Regurgitation. If it continues as is, there is no need to do anything. Our course of action for now is to visit the cardiologist again in 2010 ... clearly it isn't anything too important, just something to monitor.

Oh ... and she weighed in at 25 pounds. When we were in Russia and had her medical exam done, we were told that she weighed 27 pounds. So ... either their scale was off or she has lost weight, which actually would not surprise me. She is a chunky little monkey and with all the food she was fed in the baby home {like 2-3 course meals for every meal}, I wouldn't be surprised if she lost a little weight. I'll see what the pediatrician thinks on Thursday.

Payton's heart is perfect!

Payton had her 6-month followup appointment with the cardiologist today. After doing an EKG and an ECHO, they told us that her VSD (the small hole that she had) has closed! She has been released from the care of the cardiologist, which is excellent news!