Healed

I often think back to the first Thanksgiving after Alivia had gotten sick. On Facebook, many of my friends with children were saying how thankful they were for their healthy kids.

I wondered what it would take for me to feel like I could say that. Is your child healthy if a part of her inside is failing?

It turned out, it was easy to consider Alivia "healthy" - she compensated so well for her weak heart, that it became increasingly easy for me to forget that something wasn't right. As her heart showed improvement each time we looked at it via an echo, life felt more and more normal. But as each cardiology checkup came along for her, I had to face our reality that our daughter was still living with a heart problem. And when you have a daughter as special and wonderful and funny and smart as she is, you don't want to be reminded of that.

Last Thursday, we took Alivia in for her first echo in 9 months. In December, her echo then showed her heart was still somewhat enlarged but nowhere near as big as it was the year prior, and her function was strong enough to fall in the "normal" range. That was huge - a great gift - and we would have been fine if Thursday's echo looked the same.

But it looked better.

Alivia's heart has healed. It's size is normal, it's function normal. If you were to not know her circumstances, you would think you were looking at the healthy, normal heart of a child who hadn't gone through all she had. Her cardiologist said she's one of only a few children to improve so significantly. To go from being at risk of a transplant, to this type of healing? It's incredible. Our next step, in December, is to see if the team in St. Louis wants to take her off her medicine.

I feel unworthy of such a miracle, but she IS worthy.

I'm so grateful, so in awe, of what has happened. I honestly can't say much more than that.

Hanging with Daddy while we waited during her appointment.

A quick EKG.

The echo. She fell asleep shortly after covering her ears from the loud sound of her blood flow. :)