I am a grandfather. My first grandchild—grandson—was born on Thursday afternoon. This is new to me. I’m not quite certain what to think about this just yet. First and foremost, I’m over-the-moon thrilled about it, of course. How can anyone not be? Here is a brand-new life, with all the promise and potential that represents. Continuation of the family line, and all that. Pride. Joy. On the other hand, I can’t believe that I have a child who is old enough to have a child of his own. For heaven’s sake, wasn’t he just born? It seems like yesterday, anyway. And on the third hand, even though in my own head I’m still about 25 years old, when I look in the mirror I’ve stopped seeing my own dad looking back at me and I now see my grandfather’s face. So I guess it makes sense. And when I looked at my grandboy’s face for the very first time, my heart very nearly melted. It was a transformative moment in my life.
But it wasn’t quite OK. My grandbaby had tubes and wires sticking out of him every which way. He had a breathing tube down his throat, and much of his sweet face was obstructed with tape holding these things in place. You see, he has a heart condition known as Transposition of the Great Arteries, or TGA, and as soon as he was born, the medical intervention started.
TGA means that the major arteries into and out of his heart are connected up backwards. Oxygenated blood is only being pumped between his heart and his lungs, and non-oxygenated blood is circulating through his body. It’s not a big deal before birth, as it’s the mother’s oxygenated blood that circulates in the child’s body. It’s only at birth that the problems really start. Babies with TGA are generally rather blue when they are born (it’s one of the conditions that causes “blue baby syndrome”), and our little one was no exception. Fortunately, the doctors and nurses were well prepared to take care of him.
We found out for sure that he had this condition a few weeks ago (I posted a comment in Cheers and Jeers about it shortly after we were told), and we were all pretty scared about what this might mean. None of us had ever heard of TGA, and the thought of a tiny infant undergoing surgery on his heart shortly after birth was terrifying.
But knowledge really is power. In the intervening weeks, we’ve all done lots of research on TGA, and my son and daughter-in-law have had the benefit of excellent teams of medical professionals who were able to explain to them, and to us, exactly what it means to have TGA, what the options are for treatment, and what the chances are for our grandson to live a long and healthy life. Turns out that, of all the congenital heart defects, TGA is one of the most common. It’s also one that has a very high success rate for complete recovery following corrective surgery. In short, once it’s fixed, it’s fixed. And so, armed with this knowledge, we feel a great deal of confidence that everything will come out just fine.
There continues to be such debate around health care, but I have to say that the quantity and quality of care available to my son, his wife, and our grandson has been truly remarkable. Of course, they have the benefit of being well-employed with good medical coverage through their employer (they work for the same company). They are fortunate in that regard. This point was driven home particularly hard in the last two weeks of their pregnancy when their employer announced and executed a rather drastic downsizing, and for a week neither of them knew whether or not they would be let go. If either of them had lost their job, they would have very quickly discovered what the other side of health care in this country was like.
But that didn’t happen, and the care they are receiving is top-notch. And now we’re waiting for Monday morning when this sweet, innocent, beautiful little boy will be connected to even more machines and tubes and monitors, and a team of skilled and experienced surgeons will open his chest and perform what boils down to a “plumbing job” on his heart. Or, an “upgrade,” as a friend of my son put it.
But even with all this knowledge, the six or eight hours we’ll spend waiting for the surgery to end will be some of the longest hours we’re likely to ever spend.
Updated by peterj911 at Sun Mar 6, 2011, 05:03:58 PM
I should mention, too, that my grandson was born perfectly healthy in every way, save for the TGA. That will help him immensely heading into surgery. He was big, too, for a heart baby, which tend to be smaller on average. Even better!