Over the weekend Andrew’s breathing worsened. He was breathing rapidly and wheezing. It felt like he had acquired a new infection. I tried to aspirate his nose to no avail. The bulb aspirator did not inflate once inserted into his nostrils. It felt as if his sinuses were inflamed as no air seemed to be passing through his nose. There was no point in calling the pediatrician because we already had a previously scheduled appointment on Monday. We just had to get through the weekend.

At the pediatrician Jen started to cry in helpless frustration because Andrew has been struggling and sick for the last 10 weeks. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic and there was not much more to do. That evening I was not satisfied so I called the pulmonologist and scheduled an appointment for the next morning. He suggested a stronger antibiotic and discussed doing an upper GI test to see if there are any “rare” conditions that they have not ruled out. We go back to see him tomorrow for a follow up.

I also took Andrew to the cardiologist recently. The VSD (a hole) is causing his heart to grow at a faster rate than the rest of his body. This is causing extra fluid to go in his lungs and making it harder to breathe and fight off lung infections. The cardiologist explained that in a normal person, an infection lasts about a week but in Andrew an infection lasts about six weeks. He gets infected with new viruses before the old ones have gone away. This is why he has been continuously sick since February. He will likely have some sort of an infection until the summer.

The solution is to do open heart surgery to close the VSD. So the little guy is having a really hard first year but I am optimistic that things will improve after all is said and done. I know his angels are watching over him and I’ve prayed for my angles to watch over him as well.

The thought of him being so sick and to have to go through such serious surgery at a young age frightens me. I can’t imagine what we would do without him. I try not to think about the surgery or even the illness. I keep reminding myself that God has blessed us with THIS child for a reason. That reason could be to help him get through the critical early years of his life.