It's My Heart National CHD Conference

What an amazing experience. I will forever be grateful that I was a part of this event. IMH - National in Houston did an incredible job with this Conference. The speakers were amazing, I literally could've listened to them all day. I will attempt to recap the weekend/day below...

Day One - Friday, June 26th - Meet and Greet

Andrea and I arrived in the morning and found our way easily to the Omni Houston Hotel. We had fun taking pictures at the airport, eating lunch and lounging by the pool. We made our way to the Meet and Greet a little early to help with set up. There we met Katy and Pamela, two wonderful women, both involved with IMH - National (which is also the Houston area chapter). We also met Corrie, our Executive Director, Heather, Chapter Development Director, and a slew of other people including parents and CHD survivors. Corrie and Heather are amazing women and I was happy to finally meet them in person. Speaking with the CHD survivors and seeing where they are now was so inspiring, especially since the outlook for them was far worse given the time of their births. After a quick dinner, we went to bed eagerly anticipating the Coference the next day.

Day Two - Saturday, June 27th - Conference

We registered, bought IMH items and took our seats to eat breakfast while waiting for the event to begin. The first speaker was Dr. Heinle, the Vice-Chief at Texas CHildren's Hospital. He took us through the history of pediatric cardiology...from the beginning of the 1900s when everyone thought you couldn't operate on the heart without killing the person to now, with advancements that would amaze and astound you, and everything in between - including covering babies in ice to stop their hearts to complete the first open heart surgeries, parents being used as a bypass machine for their children's surgeries until the bypass machine was perfected, and the first cath being done on a Dr by the Dr himself, only to find himself fired when he published it, then later sharing a Nobel Prize.

Our first breakout was on Advancements in Genetic Research. This is a subject near and dear to me, as Drew quite possibly has a rare Genetic Disorder known as Noonan Syndrome. I had the opportunity to ask questions to the Dr. who presented the material, as did Andrea. It was VERY informative, enligtening and amazing to realize that all this knowledge has only been discovered in the last 15 yrs, with most of it coming in the last five. Andrea and her family might be candidates for some of the research going on, Amelia has AV Canal Defect, which is typically associated with Down's Syndrome...but she doesn't have it. I will keep you all posted on that.

The next main speaker was Dr. Henri Justino, an interventional Cardiologist. He took us through typical catherization procedures used with children and adults who have CHD, including Drew's procedure, the balloon valvuloplasty. It was intriguing to see how a stent is put in place and also how they assist other fields in removing foreign objects. Hopefully advancements in this field will continue to help children avoid invasive procedures, or at least help solve some of the issues so the procedures are less risky to the patient.

We then had a awesome lunch and recovened for another breakout in Family Dynamics. Our speaker was an LCSW who was fantastic! She made the most amazing points about grief and healing. How to not hold ourselves to these ideals we have created for ourselves and instead, walk through the grief of losing those ideals to come to terms with what we are facing and handling it in the best possible way for ourselves, our children and our families. She encouraged us to use our support systems and not just "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps." As I've found out, that doesn't work for long...and when you fall, you need a soft place to land. She is an amazing woman and I know she is an amazing therapist.

We ended the day with snack and a panel discussion with 3 adult survivors of CHD, as well as Corrie's moving story of her son, Noah's legacy. As a parent of a child with CHD it is very important to me to see these adults living their lives, making a difference in the world, and enjoying each and every day doing what they love to do. I pray f0r the same for Drew.

That evening, we went out for drinks and dinner with Corrie and Heather...we had a blast! They are a lot of fun and it was great to get to know them better. We got to see a bit more of Houston by driving to Chick-fil-A on our own (yum-o!) and then, to Ninfas with Corrie and Heather. It looks like a cool little town.

We left on Sunday morning, so we missed out on the Zoo event, but hopefully next year. We had to get home to our babies and hubbies. Bill had a great (and busy) weekend with Drew...and even cleaned up the house and folded laundry for me! Isn't that awesome? I am very blessed.