Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated on Bella's heart journey. We appreciate all your support and words of hope and encouragement.
Please note, because it's a no-cost site for us to gratefully use, any tributes are donations to fund this website, and not to Bella. Sorry Bella. We are grateful to have great insurance coverage.
Welcome
This journal is dedicated to the latest health updates of the lovable gal we know as Bella. As of March 24, 2016, Bella is officially on the heart transplant waiting list. Her ICD (implantable cardiac defibrillator) recognized a heart fibrillation on Saturday, March 19 and did it's job beautifully (administered a shock). Thank goodness she didn't go to New York and Pennsylvania as we had earlier planned! After an ambulance ride to the ER, she was admitted to Children's Cardiac ICU for a week to evaluate her heart and alter her medications.
As you might imagine, the evaluation process for getting a heart transplant is quite rigorous. But her medical care-givers have been thorough and their expertise has been invaluable in addressing Bella's ever-changing condition. We are so pleased with her entire medical team at Children's and UW!
Now that she is officially on the waiting list, we wait for the universe to orchestrate the rest.
A bit of background
Bella's heart journey began March 10, 2009 after an unbeknownst heart murmur was detected on a routine checkup. She was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, HCM (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophic_cardiomyopathy), a genetic condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken. HCM has a wide spectrum of presentation, including what is often seen in the news when an otherwise healthy athlete collapses in competition. Most people with HCM can live normal lives with perhaps a few physical exertion restrictions. In a small percentage the disease progresses with a heart transplant as the only treatment.
Up until last fall Bella had enjoyed living with relatively few symptoms. Then she began to experience limitations in her day to day activities. These were the initial signs of her heart failing and the necessity of a transplant that her doctors had been preparing us for. She's being watched like a hawk by her team and family at every turn, while we await the next phase of this journey.
We extend our thanks to her/our friends and family who are there to support her in so many ways. She feels the love!
And a special shout-out to our friends, the Moure family, thank you, thank you.
