Mason Gregory Garka

All, Kelsey and I had a regular visit with Dr. Barford (our Perinatologist...which is a high risk pregnancy doctor). Things went as well as we could hope for. Typically, when a child is diagnosed with HLHS before they are born the left side of his/her heart is extremely underdeveloped. In Mason's case the right and left sides of his heart are of normal size. Dr. Barford was somewhat surprised to see this because at this stage of the pregnancy (28 weeks) the left side of the heart is usually shriveled up or non-existent. This does not mean that Mason has a normal heart because the left side has scarring and does not function properly. It does mean, however, that it would be much easier for the surgeons to perform surgery on him. Obviously a surgeon would rather perform a surgery on a plum rather than a raisin. At 28 weeks Mason is about 3.5lbs. and the size of a baby at 29 weeks. This is good news since we want a big and strong baby when he is born because of what he is goin

Hi everybody, It's been awhile since we've posted any updates or new information on Mason's website...mostly because we haven't had any doctors appointments. We continue to get words of encouragement and support from our friends and thank all of you very much for that. We have a doctors appointment this Friday, 3/28, as well as Friday, 4/11. We will have updates for you after each of these. If you are curious as to what HLHS is and how it works, please visit the link below. It does a good job of explaining what it is, what the effects are and what Mason will have to go through once he is born. Thank you again for everything, we'll talk to you all soon!! God Bless, Greg & Kelsey http://www.med.umich.edu/mott/chc/patient_con_hyp.html