Asa James Eisele has arrived!
He was born on September 20, 2015 at 5:24am in Blackfoot, Idaho. He weighed 7lbs. even, 20 inches long, he had very short blonde hair (it is starting to get darker)!
He was unable to reach the desired blood oxygen levels just after birth and it was then discovered that something was wrong with his heart. He was transported to the NICU in Idaho Falls just three hours after birth to do further testing. It took quite a while to get a full diagnosis and there are still a few things we are waiting to hear back on, but at this point, we do know that his diagnosis is a complex congenital heart defect (he has 5 significant defects).
The defects that Asa has are not super uncommon, but the overall combination of them create a unique situation. Explaining his condition is rather complicated, especially because we are unsure ourselves if we are fully understanding it (we think we are!). Both his aorta and pulmonary artery come out of his right ventricle and they are malpositioned, one on top of the other. His left ventricle is small. He also has a hole in the wall of his heart that separates the right and left ventricles. This hole, however, has created a positive situation for the combination of other defects which is how he has been able to survive without surgery right away.
Asa will require surgery to make repairs to his heart, but because of the combination of his heart defects, he has extra time to grow and become stronger for the surgery.
He was in the NICU for four days. He was on oxygen for the first day, but since then, he has been stable on room air. Over the past four days he has proven to be a fighter. The doctors in Idaho Falls and in Salt Lake City feel that he is strong enough to come home.
Last night (9/24/15) was our first night home. While home he will be hooked up to a monitor to constantly track his blood oxygen levels.
We will be traveling to Primary Children’s in SLC sometime next week to get another echocardiogram and meet in person with his cardiologists there.
At this point the team of Cardiologists believe there are two surgeries that are possible for Asa: (1) a two ventricle repair or (2) a one ventricle repair. The two ventricle repair would result in a better quality of life post-surgery. However, it is dependent on whether or not Asa’s left ventricle were to grow more. His left ventricle is very small and if it does not grow, they will not be able to do the two ventricle repair. Should that be the case he will have the one ventricle repair.
The one ventricle repair would result in more surgeries down the line and the possibility of a transplant in the distant future. There’s an additional concern that while we are trying to get him bigger and stronger for whatever surgery he’ll end up having, that his pulmonary artery will not grow to the right size or become too big, causing him to need a procedure where a band will be put on it to be sure that it does not get too big and cause additional problems.
While this has been a rather devastating circumstance, we have found a number of things to be grateful for. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father that Asa was able to come home and that his surgery will not have to occur right away. We are grateful that Asa was able to stay in the NICU in Idaho Falls instead of being sent to Salt Lake City the day he was born. We are grateful that Truman has adjusted well to seeing very little of both Dave and I. We are grateful that my Mom was able to be here to provide so much help and support. We are extremely grateful that Asa is a good eater. He has taken amazingly to nursing. We are grateful for the plan of salvation and for Christ’s atonement. It is a great comfort to know that if Asa will not be able to have a perfect body in this life he will in the next.
We are grateful for the love, support, and prayers we have already felt and received on Asa’s and our family’s behalf. We have complete faith that if it is the Lord’s will Asa can truly be healed of this ailment.
Much love,
Deanna, Dave, Truman, and Asa
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