Victoria’s Story

Site created on November 25, 2018

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We will be using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. For those who are new to the story, Victoria has Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy. This condition causes her center heart wall to thicken abnormally. This thickening causes her heart to overwork with physical activity, stress, loud drum beats, and anything else that startles her. To control this thickening and pain she has been on medication for over a year. The medication is no longer enough. The doctor has indicated that a Septal Myectomy will help. This is surgical thinning of the heart wall, with open heart surgery. Surgery is scheduled for Friday, November 30, 2018. Our hope is that this will help Victoria return to regular physical activity. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Karen Karl

Merry Christmas!  Victoria is 3 weeks out of surgery and doing well.  Prior to surgery, her heart beat sounded like a whooshing washer cycle rather than a clear ticking clock. Listened to her heart, now, and there was a beautiful crisp ticking. Thank you Dr. Huddleston. 

Small bump in the road, last week, with lots of pain, inhibiting her sleep. Seemed more than normal healing pain.  Called her cardiologist, Dr. Goel, for a sleep aid. They invited her into the office for a visit.  His guess was fluid built up in her peracardium (for those of us nonheart experts, that’s the “pretty purse” around the heart). He performed an echocardiogram to validate his guess and we got to see the surgeons amazing work. Her heart is so clearly different with the thinner center wall. This is allowing much more efficient blood flow. Wow. He also saw the additional fluid that was causing her pain. With a course of heavy ibuprofen, she is already sleeping better. Thank you Dr. Goel.

Once again, thank you all for your gifts of prayer, visits, treats, and love.  With you, our Christmas is complete.  Wishing you and your family a joyful Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2019. 
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