Doctors and More Doctors

Since coming home from the hospital, Callie has been pretty busy with doctor appointments. First she visited with the surgeon who performed her surgery; he pronounced the surgery a success. Maili accompanied her to that appointment, and they spent most of their time telling each other jokes and whispering secrets, much to the amusement of the nurses. They have become even closer since Callie came home, if that's even possible. They were already inseperable, but now they tell each other many times a day how much they love each other, and they are so sweet together, always touching in some way even when they are relaxing at home.Maili talked MeMe into buying them Best Friends necklaces which have matching pieces that fit together-she couldn't wait to give Callie hers when she got home, and both of them have worn them every day since. They truly are the best of friends.
Callie's next appointment was with her pediatric cardiologist, who was very pleased with her recovery and wants to see her again in a month. Her heart is doing great, and right now the biggest concern is her lung, particularly the right one. She was diagnosed with a hypoplastic right lung, a result of the damage caused by the veins in her heart draining to the wrong place. It was originally thought that they would have to remove 2/3 of that lung; thankfully they decided to go ahead and just repair the heart to see if things might improve. The risk of pnuemonia is still pretty great if she gets a respiratory infection of any kind, so her cardiologist felt that it would be best for her to remain at home for awhile longer instead of returning to school and thus increasing her risk. Callie is disappointed that she isn't able to return to school yet, but she does seem to understand that she needs to stay home for awhile so that she won't get sick or hurt her incision, which hasn't completely healed yet. She was able to attend her dance class on Saturday, where she was supposed to sit on the sidelines and watch since it was one of the final rehearsals before their upcoming performance. However, Callie had other ideas, and I had to remind her several times that she was supposed to be WATCHING, not dancing.
It looks as if there may be a few more doctor appointments in her future anyway; we met with a geneticist while she was in the hospital who confirmed what we already suspected: Callie was given a diagnosis of VACTERL association. Basically this is an association of birth defects which tends to occur together. It is not considered to be a syndrome, mainly because it is still unknown which genes cause it to occur, and the treatment simply involves treating each medical issue separately.
In order to be diagnosed with VACTERL a person has to have three or more of the features associated with it:
Vertebral anomalies
Anal atresia
Cardiovascular anomalies
Tracheoesophageal fistula
Esophageal atresia
Renal (kidney) abnormalities
Limb defects
We were already aware that Callie had several of these, and the remaining ones will need to be tested for and ruled out. We were able to get a renal ultasound done while she was still in the hospital, and her kidneys do appear normal, thank goodness. There is some concern that she may have a tetered spinal cord, and she will undergo an MRI in the near future to rule that out.
Even though some of those things might sound scary, the reality is that Callie is a normal, happy, healthy little girl, and that is the reason I felt the need to share this information. Many people considering a special needs adoption might be scared away by a medical file which looks overwhelming on paper. And in the beginning, so were we. But that leap of faith turned out to be one of the best decisions we ever made for our family, and we wouldn't change a thing.