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Joshua's Story
- Chapter 1: So What Is Transposition of the Great Arteries?
- Chapter 2: Pregnancy and Delivery
- Chapter 3: The First 16 Days
- Chapter 4: The First Week In The PICU
- Chapter 5: Waiting For Surgery
- Chapter 6: Still Waiting For Surgery
- Chapter 7: Surgery Day
- Chapter 8: A Happy Ending - Part One
- Chapter 9: The First Two Weeks At Home
- Chapter 10: Back In Hospital
- Chapter 11: A Happy Ending - Part Two
About Me
- Corrie
- I am the mother of a strong, courageous little boy named Joshua - a TGA 'survivor'. He was born in August 2007 with a congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. He is doing amazingly well and I find his strength truly inspiring.
Little Man Joshua : How It All Began
Joshua was born 9 days overdue on August 25, 2007 weighing 7lbs 3 oz and measuring 20 in long. Joshua appeared to be in perfect health and carried on as such for some time but he had everybody fooled. He was actually born with a serious and life threatening congential heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries that unbelieveably went quietly undetected for over 2 weeks. When he was 16 days old Joshua very nearly died, but thanks to swift action by the staff in emerg at our local children's hospital he managed to hang on. An emergency atrial septostomy was performed to create a hole between the two atria to allow mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. This was necessary in order to allow more oxygen to be delivered to his poor oxygen deprived body. Unfortuantely the events of that day took it's toll on my little man and he ended up suffering a venous stroke which led to increased intracranial pressure, which led to cerebral swelling, which led to brain damage, which led to seizures. Finally after getting the seizures under control and allowing the cerebral swelling to subside Josh underwent open heart surgery on October 2 to perform the arterial switch operation. The operation went well despite a rocky start and Josh pulled through brilliantly. He was discharged 5 days after his operation (to the amazement of all his doctors) only to be readmitted 2 weeks later for a partial bowel obstruction caused by necrotizing enterocolitis. Josh received a second surgery on October 25 to resect a small portion of his bowel and was once again discharged on October 30. Josh has been doing amazingly well since, is currently medication free and everyday I am in awe of the strength and perseverance of my little man Joshua!
1 comment:
Robb, Corrie and Josh,
Your Mom and Brian were here earlier today and we heard about your blog, which we just accessed. We thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and your narration.
Josh sure has done exceedingly well; we are thankful and delighted.
Frankly, the kitty litter treat literally took the cake!
Art and Digna Olyslager
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