Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! What’s the equally alarming, open heart surgery version? Lines and tubes and beeps, oh my! We’re discussing the various wires, tubes, lines, machines, beeps, and more that you might see in the cardiac intensive care unit attached to your baby after open heart…
Taking care of a baby with critical CHD is a team effort. A team effort at home. And a collaborative team effort of providers in the medical space. In this post, come along with me to meet some of your CHD child’s medical team. I’ll take you through a list…
When you think about open heart surgery scars you may quickly think of a scar running down the middle of the patient’s chest. Before my daughter was born, I knew she would need open heart surgery as a baby. Of course, I was more worried about her heart repair, but…
Many people are curious about the cost of open heart surgery. I know I was and still am. Unfortunately, like all healthcare things in the United States, it is not so straightforward. For an extremely anecdotal reference, the hospital billed our insurance $162,241.02 for my daughter’s second open-heart surgery hospital…
Hasta luego Heart Month and hello greater CHD Awareness! Is Heart Month ever actually over? Not likely if you’re a CHD family, you may be all about the hearts and CHD awareness all year long. And I’m here for it. I wanted to take some time to reflect on Heart…
As the parent of a heart warrior, you quickly learn what to expect at a pediatric cardiology appointment. It becomes routine. In the beginning, however, everything is new. If your child is newly diagnosed with CHD or even heading to the pediatric cardiologist to confirm or rule out a Congenital…
Heart mama life is not for the faint of heart. Pun intended. If you’re a heart mom, you’ve likely heard, “How do you do it?” And “I can’t even imagine.” Or maybe “I couldn’t do what you’re doing.” But you can, and they could, and so could she. Because when…
As a seasoned mom, pregnant with my third, I never expected to have a tubie baby. Honestly, I was completely unaware of tube feeding. As modern moms, we’re bombarded with feeding war messaging – formula versus breastmilk, on-demand versus scheduled, nursing versus bottle feeding. Yet there’s an entirely separate feeding…
This Heart Month, join our efforts to raise Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness and shop CHD small businesses. Once you become a heart mom or heart dad, heart aunt, or heart grandma, it feels natural to want to tell everyone about your family’s warrior and spread CHD Awareness. An easy…
If you’re a heart mom like me, you likely struggle to resist buying up everything with hearts. So I wanted to share with you some of my favorites and latest finds to honor and support your heart warrior. Heart Month is almost upon us and it’s time to call attention…