Miracles Before Leaving Alaska

Part of the purpose of this blog is for my husband and I to also document all of the miracles throughout our journey. There was a great miracle that we received news of at our last cardiology appointment. We had one last appointment at the beginning January with our Pediatric Cardiologist in Anchorage before we left Alaska. He wanted us to schedule our appointment around a sonographer that would be visiting from Seattle Children's Hospital. This sonographer specializes in Fetal Echocardiograms and the ultrasound machine settings are changed to capture more detailed images of the heart. I sat through about an hour of an ultrasound where the sonographer took all the necessary images and measurements of our baby's heart. Something miraculous that the cardiologist and the sonographer discovered was that there was no significant narrowing of the major arteries, which is almost guaranteed with his diagnosis. Narrowing of the arteries also causes a decrease in oxygenated blood flow and to correct that, the surgeons place a stent in them to keep them open. These need to be replaced as the child grows until the heart reaches full maturity. So typically, this increases the amount of surgeries, possibly having multiple within their first year of life. We knew that him not having this narrowing is an answer to prayers.

Insurance was another obstacle we had to overcome. We had made plans for Utah after our last appointment because insurance had said we were approved to be there so long as we had the proper documentation in order. Long story short, it was very difficult for them to approve our medical coverage and travel to Utah. After a month of waiting, phone calls, a medical letter from our cardiologist, enrollment of insurance for hospitals and physicians, and conflicting answers, we finally received approval for travel and care in Salt Lake City 9 days before we left. Many miracles occurred through all of this. We are also grateful to our OBGYN's secretaries who patiently called and worked with the insurance.  There was also a foundation that helped to cover one of our son's plane tickets that was not covered by insurance. We feel so blessed and thankful that everything worked out for us to be here in Utah. It would have been difficult for us to have the help available to us anywhere else.