02/09/2026
I’ve missed some days, oops.
Diagnosis.
Nolan was diagnosed with a coarctation of the aorta and ventricular septal defect. (There’s also some debate if he had an atrial septal defect, but that was not the highest priority on the Oh S**t scale.)
In the land of CHD, these can be some of the more mild defects that can be solved with surgery and never cause problems again.
In terms of just the heart, that’s where his diagnosis’s end. But since the heart is a pretty important organ that does important things, that’s not where Nolan’s diagnosis’s end.
Nolan doesn’t follow rules or guidelines or “normal”.
Nolan’s brain did not receive enough oxygenated blood (thanks CHD) so he ended up with periventricular leukamalacia which in turn has given him a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
When having his coarctation repaired, one of his vocal cord nerves was struck, giving him a paralyzed vocal cord (thanks CHD).
Nolan’s lungs were unprepared to be called into service since he was a bit underbaked when he was evicted. Combined with the VSD he had (thanks CHD) and the vocal cord that wasn’t properly protecting his airway, Nolan’s lungs were having a hell of a time doing their job.
Nolan had a feeding tube placed so he could receive food since he was unable to swallow without food ending up in his lungs. At first his feeding tube went into his stomach, but eventually had to be moved to his intestine to further protect his airway since he began vomiting spontaneously. (That was so much not fun, lemme tell ya.)
There’s a little more to the story and more things added to his list of ailments (Epilepsy (thanks PVL/CHD), Spina Bifida Occulta, Cortical Visual Impairment (thanks PVL/CHD)…) but we will leave those for another day since we’re in heart month.
