Purple Lips?

Several times during the past few weeks Sydney's mouth and lips have been turning purple and I couldn't figure out the reason for it. First off, having her face turn a different color (In the medical world it is called desaturation or to desat ) brings back the horrible memories from when we were waiting for her to have her surgery and she would desat every few minutes. She would get into such a deep sleep that she would not breathe as deep as she needed to, to get enough oxygen to her body. Plus her heart was working as hard as it could to give her body the oxygen that is needed to function. We would hear the alarms go off and rush to unwrap her from her blankets and rub her back, trying to wake her up enough to take some good deep breaths. I remember taking shifts with my Mom and hubby to stay awake and keep a close eye her. Those were some scary times! So to have Sydney all the sudden desat for no reason has been very scary to me!

Well I have finally found out what has been causing her purple lips, the cold weather. I would notice her turning purple after she had gotten out of the tub or after we had gone on a walk, but I was never really sure if it was the cold doing it because it seemed so random. Yesterday Seth had his 10 year reunion and part of this included a breakfast in the park. It wasn't very cold so I dressed Sydney in short sleeves and long pants with socks. Well all of the sudden a really cold wind started to blow, I got Sydney's blanket out and wrapped her up in it, that is when I noticed that her lips, mouth and the skin around it, had turned purple! I looked around at the other children and babies who were dressed similar to Sydney, but no purple faces. Thankfully my sister (who also graduated with Seth) had a warm blanket in her car and both blankets helped Sydney to warm up enough for her purple face to go away. I felt like the worlds worst Mom, if I had dressed her in the warm outfit that I had originally picked out that morning then maybe this wouldn't have happened!

I am not sure what her desating means, it could mean that Sydney's heart still isn't strong enough to fight off the cold weather and do it's job of pumping the blood through her body, or it could mean that her next surgery is going to happen sooner then we expected. Sydney has her nine month check-up in two weeks on the 12th of October, I think that I will just keep her extra warm, with lots of layers, until I can talk with her doctor about what has been happening.