Hello, my name is Mavis. I was born perfect in every way, yet my heart has a faulty valve. Thanks to the trusty feral ductus arteriosus, which moves blood from the pulmonary artery to the aorta, my severe pulmonic stenosis was able to go undetected throughout my mother’s (And mine!) pregnancy. When I was two days old, and ready for discharge, an astute nurse was able to hear a murmur in my heartbeat while taking my discharge vitals! Thank God for her, because she helped save my life! My Pulmonic Valve is a solid wall instead of the usual three flaps. As a result, I do have shortness of breath and a poor appetite. My surgery (Paediatric Valvuloplasty) costs $48,296. My insurance will cover 90% of that amount. $4829.60 will be the remaining bill. I will be having surgery on 08/11/2018. What the procedure is, is a catheter being threaded up through a blood vessel in my groin, and all the way up to the coronary artery in my heart. Then a second, smaller catheter will be threaded up through that one. There will be a tiny balloon on the end of the second catheter, did I mention that? Anyhow, the balloon will be carefully positioned at the opening of my pulmonary valve, and inflated repeatedly, which applies pressure to dilate the valve. The inflated balloon will hopefully widen my valve opening by splitting the three fused leaflets in mine apart. When my valve is wide enough, the balloon-tipped catheter will be removed. My first catheter will remain there for 6 to 12 hours just in case the balloon part must be repeated. My mother is a single parent, and will already have to miss work to be with me during my procedure(s) and stay. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated, but good old fashioned prayer would sure be great as well. Thank you so very much for reading my story thus far, I look forward to a lifetime of even better, fun stories! Thank you, please keep me in your prayers and be safe!
