Saw Dr D again today for a consultation.
He told us that he'd been looking at Little S's angiogram this morning - not just to pass the time but because he was discussing her prognosis with her surgeon.
He then passed on regards from a medical student who has also been checking out pictures of Little S's arteries - she became interested in Little S and her anatomy when she sat in on a prior consultation.
And then Dr D mentioned the annoyed 15 year old girl that is the reason that Little S is only 'almost unique': the girl also has pulmonary atresia with ventrical septal defect and mapcas, where the left pulmony artery was connected to the left subclavian and the right pulmonary was (and this is the 'almost unique' bit) connected to the right coronary artery.
She's annoyed as we have robbed her of her singular status - she is now only 'almost unique' as well!
However, to us this was great news - there's a kid with the same condition as Little S and she's made it all the way to being a stroppy teenager!
For Little S herself, Dr D is very happy with her - she is doing well given what she's been through.
So they'll see us in another three months at which point they'll probably decide to do another angiogram and, assuming all is still going well, schedule another operation to replace the gore-tex tube with a proper human-donated valve and close the hole in her heart.
If the proper valve functions as it should, Little S might not need another operation for 10 years or more, at which point they'll have to replace the valve with a grown-up version.
That's if everything continues to turn out well - and currently they're hopeful, so so are we.
