Breana's Heart Story Continues.

Breana is now 10 months old (8 months corrected.) She has had a very busy life so far with 2 hospital procedures since her last heart surgery.

The first was a gastroscopy to check out how bad her reflux is (bad!), and the second was a cardiac catheterization (angiogram) to see how many and how large her VSD's (holes in her heart) are. She was also admitted to "Starship Childrens Hospital", for 3 days due to pneumonia (first and only illness so far, phew!)

They discovered during the catheterization that Bree has 4 VSD's, one at the top, two in the middle and one unfortunately at the bottom. The VSD at the bottom has multiple exit and entry points and will prove very difficult to close. Because of this they have decided to go in through the side instead of the standard way through the top.

Bree's open heart surgery is scheduled for the 9th of October 2001. They are again waiting to see if she can put on some more weight. Ideally her surgeon wants Bree to be at least 5 kgs. I guess time will tell.

Bree is currently 4.8 kgs (9lb7).

The best news is that after 8 months, Bree has finally had her naso-gastric tube (NG tube) removed. Breana can take almost full bottles, and her weight gains have been ok (good enough to keep the ng tube out, but still slow). Bree is now also rolling and sitting. Bree has started to slow down some and she has taken on a bluish tinge around her mouth and forehead and she gets quite breathless and sweaty whilst feeding. But Bree is trying not to fall too far behind her twin, Finn. A few squirmishes have taken place over rattles and Bree is determined to hold her own against Finn.