TOF Warrior Princess

On this day in 1944 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Alfred Blalock, Dr. Helen Taussig, and Surgical Technician Vivien Thomas performed the first surgery to treat tetralogy of Fallot, a that robs the blood of oxygen & is often signaled by a bluish skin tone. Groundbreaking at its time, the procedure came to be known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig Shunt. ❤️

Well it’s been quite a while. We have had a very busy year. Zelda has been playing sports and started Pre-K! She’s growing so fast and is as bubbly as ever.

She had her tenth heart cath on Tuesday, September 6th. What the cath showed was that her surgically altered PAs are holding up strong and staying open. Her valve is not narrowed or leaking and the conduit is holding up beautifully. Her heart looks the best it’s ever looked! That was the highlight of the day. Dr Salazar did an amazing job. “Anatomically she looks better than she ever has before.” Was said in regards to her heart. Thanks be to God.

One finding was that her pulmonary pressures were significantly elevated and she has been diagnosed once again with pulmonary hypertension. They tested her on nitrous oxide as well as oxygen during the cath and her response was good; pressures never reached “normal” levels but they did improve in response to the meds. So the game plan at this moment is to try to manage the pulmonary hypertension for the long term. She’s started sildenafil again every 8 hours and we are monitoring her closely. I am hoping and praying that the sildenafil works how they want it to so she doesn’t have to be back on continuous flow oxygen.

Dr Brown was very impressed with how her anatomy looks. This is why the hypertension is so concerning because it is not a direct result from her narrowed arteries. He did say, “We’ve always talked about giving Zelda every chance we can and I think with all the procedures and all the surgeries she’s been through I think she is set up the best she’s ever been and now we need to just make her quality of life and everything as good as we possibly can” So we are taking things day by day and making sure our babe is happy and as healthy as can be! She’s been cleared to participate in activities that she can tolerate and she loves her extracurriculars. 🥰 I know God has big plans for this little punkin pie and she is going to defy the odds! 🖤

Please keep her in your prayers and send us all the positive vibes. We are so super grateful for all of the support and love.

🚨 Zelda Update 🚨

Zelda had her cardiology appointment today and it went GREAT! There is minimal to no calcification of her conduit and her porcine valve is functioning beautifully. She is scheduled for her tenth heart catheterization on May 11. We are so hopeful that they will be able to see some growth in her outer PAs that go into the lungs. 🙏🏼

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and send us all the positive vibes, love and light. As always we are so appreciative and grateful for y’all’s prayers and love. 🖤

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🚨Big news for Zeldy!!🚨

✨She has been accepted to Make-A-Wish. ✨

Unfortunately due to covid precautions and vaccination requirements her original wish of Disney is looking like it may not be possible 😞.

However she also has been wanting:

1. A fluffy cat 🐈
2. A shopping spree 💰
3. An iPad 📱
4. A backyard fort 🎠🗼🏰

So there are definitely other avenues we will be exploring until we hear the final verdict on Disney.

We are so excited this little wild child will get to feel so special as she is so deserving. 🖤 Her health has been amazing since her last surgery and we are almost one year out with NO procedures. We go back in April to most likely schedule her tenth heart cath.

As always, she loves getting her “mails” so if anyone wants to send her little Valentine cards, CHD Awareness Cards, (basically anything heart themed) or postcards she would be on cloud nine. ⛅️9️⃣ {No pressure for anything extra, just some mail addressed to her, little stinker.}

Her mailing address is:

Zelda Regalado
PO BOX 7
Old Ocean, TX 77463

We are so grateful for you all being involved in this little lamb’s life and thank you so much for all the constant thoughts, prayers, positive vibes, love & light.



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Zelda had her cardiology appointment this morning and it was definitely one to remember!!

I’ll start by saying she is such a little boss babe sitting through all her tests like a champ and being her bubbly little self. 🙌🏼

Okay so down to the nitty gritty… Dr. Brown said that as far as they can see there is no narrowing, the leaky valve is still minimal and pressures are the same as they were at her post-op appointment which are all GREAT signs. (She has never NOT had narrowing issues after a surgery so this is major.)He said she looks so great and that he is very pleased with her activity level. He wants to see her again in 6 months and go from there. He is so comfortable with her stability that he doesn’t feel like a cath is necessary at the moment. 😱 We will just continue to monitor her at home until her next clinic appointment. This is huge. We are so grateful.

We are in shock still a little bit because this has been the most positive cardiology appointment we have had to date. We could not be more blessed. 🖤

Also, Zelda received her Make-A-Wish certificate so she will be making her wish in the very near future. This little warrior is so deserving; she has been through so much and still has the most positive outlook on life. 🤩

Please, as always, send Zeldy all the thoughts, prayers, positive vibes, love and light. They are so appreciated.🖤🫀



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Today is Zelda’s fourth heartiversary. 🖤 It’s such a monumental day because today is the day her little 7 pound body absolutely ROCKED her first open heart surgery and claimed victory on her very first battle. This little turd is so strong and I am so grateful we are lucky enough to celebrate these milestones with her! Her journey isn’t over but she is such a determined little fighter. Happy heartiversary to our little TOF Warrior Princess. 🥳

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Well I know it’s been a long while since we have posted and today is World Heart Day, so I figured I would give a little update on Miss Zeldy Lou. ❤️

Zelda turned FOUR on September 19th and enjoyed very much being the center of attention for a day. 🎂🥳 She has been so full of energy and her tiredness is more infrequent than ever which is such a good sign. She is constantly moving and exploring. She is fulfilling all of her little sister duties by being a complete pain to her big sisters and is starting to accept her role as a big sister begrudgingly. 😹 (No, she really is starting to like having a little sister and friend.) She has had no issues since coming off of continuous oxygen and has needed 🚫NO O2 assistance🚫 since March.‼️ It’s incredible. She is pink, satting beautifully and has been doing great. This child has defied all the odds and continues to do so. We are so so thankful for all of the positives. We weren’t sure at first that we would make it this far but thanks to the absolutely amazing cardiology team, nurses, PICU team and staff at Children’s Memorial Hermann this kid is thriving. 🙌🏼

Our follow up cardiology appointment has been rescheduled to October 22nd so we will have a more concrete physiological/ plan of care update after that. We are anticipating a heart cath sometime toward the end of the year and then hopefully minimal intervention for maintenance for a while. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Will definitely post an update following her appointment! Until then, as always, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and send us all the good vibes, love and light. 🖤 We are so grateful for y’all!

Thinking of the Harlow family tonight. 💔 Prayers for peace for her mom, dad and brothers. ❤️

RIP Jillian

Zelda has made it home. 🏡👩‍👧‍👧👨‍👧‍👧

She is a happy and healthy little heathen; wild as ever. 🥴🤗 We had a brief frightening blip in her recovery and now we are hopefully back on track.🙏🏼🤞🏼Whatever it was, it was mild and seemed to respond to antibiotics. 🙌🏼 It was either a UTI or the residual fluid in her pleural cavity. 🫁💧 We are so super thankful it wasn’t worst case scenario and are excited for round 2 of her homecoming. 🥰

Thank you all for the continued prayers.❣️



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Well Zelda spiked a fever yesterday evening so we took her to the ER and now she’s been admitted. She is expected to be inpatient at least through Wednesday for her blood cultures to come back. She has mild pleural effusion (fluid in the chest cavity) so she is on IV antibiotics and they are going to be doing an echo at some point today.

Please send her all the healing prayers, wishes, vibes etc. 🖤



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When they say children are resilient they are NOT exaggerating. To think less than a week ago we were looking at her helpless, heavily sedated, intubated little self laying on a bed with countless tubes, wires and IVs. Tonight she’s spritely walking out of the hospital... it blows my mind. 🥺

She is off continuous oxygen and will have a supply for “as needed” purposes, she has significantly reduced her medication load for the long haul, and she is ready to start her road to recovery at home. She is so strong and amazing truly. We are oh so blessed.

Thank you all for the endless love and support!

Until next time, peace out Hermann ✌🏼.



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Happy Monday! (It’s a very happy Monday on our end 🥰) & Happy International Women’s Day! 🚺💜

Speaking of amazing little women, Zelda had kind of a weird weekend. She had some lymphatic drainage concerns which they were pretty concerned about at first but after observation were deemed as very mild and are expected to resolve on their own now. Also this weekend, Zelda had her central line removed and downgraded to a less critical pod in the ICU.

Now this morning she has had her arterial line removed and her chest tubes removed. She seems to be feeling much better after the chest tubes came out.

‼️She is satting in the high nineties on only .5 L of O2. ‼️ Going home WITHOUT continuous O2 is a possibility. She’s been on continuous oxygen for almost a year and a half so for her to live a tubeless life would be amazing. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

We are anticipating a downgrade to IMU when a bed becomes available and will be hopefully discharged within the week. 🖤

She is almost back to 100% Zelda; WILD as ever. She is ready to go home yesterday! 😹

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Zelda is doing much better today. Her ng tube is out and to say she is very happy about it would be an understatement. She is refusing to cough so she’s a little tachypneic. She’s been downgraded to a less intensive ICU room so we are one step closer to IMU status. The doctors are extremely happy with her progress and anticipate discharge early next week if everything continues to improve at this rate. 🙌🏼 She’s been getting up to go potty, eating food, talking more, making faces and is on the fast track to her normal spunky self. 🖤

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Zelda has had a great night. She was not letting the meds keep her sedated and was definitely not having the ventilator. They ended up extubating at around 6 this morning. She is awake, talking, eating popsicles and blowing bubbles 😊 . She still has her ng tube in but we are looking at removal later this afternoon. She is on the fast track to recovery. Everyone is so pleased with her progress and she is being such a little fiesty trooper. Things are looking so positive in all aspects. We are so proud of our girl.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

It’s over! It’s done! She did great! Dr. Salazar did everything he planned for and more.

•he combined her pulmonary arteries that shared a wall so they are significantly bigger

•they didn’t have to place any stents 🙌🏼

•her valve was replaced with a Hancock valve 🐖

•her VSD was closed so he reopened it to around 3-4 mm

•her ASD was way large because of her pressure issues (almost 8mm)so he narrowed it down to around 3-4 mm as well

•her tricuspid valve was essentially blown out and now has minimal leaking

•her RV pressures have been HALVED yall- HALVED!! 👏👏👏

•we were told there was a 50/50 chance they might not close her chest but they did

Oscar and I are going to be able to go back and see her within the next 30 minutes to an hour and will have more details soon. But all in all this was a GREAT surgical success. We are so thrilled!

Thank you all for all of the positivity y’all. Our family has been so blessed by the outpouring of love, care and community support. We are forever grateful to everyone! THANK YOU ALL. 🖤



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⏰ 🕰 ⏲⏱⏳⌚️

Zelda was taken back by anesthesia at 0830; it takes 1-2 hours to get her set up with everything before the actual surgery begins. Surgery is anticipated to last at least 6-8 hours from initial incision.

This never gets any easier. 🖤

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Zelda has had a great couple days in the hospital. She wasn’t a fan of her IV (go figure) but it only took one poke! 💉She has got to spend the last two days on the 10th floor which is the coolest floor in my opinion in Children’s Memorial Hermann. She has had an absolute BLAST opening all of her mail ; we seriously cannot thank y’all enough for taking time to send her little get well goodies. She is still holding on to some of them for opening tonight. 💕
All is a go for tomorrow morning at around 8:30. Please keep the prayers, positive vibes, love & light coming y’all.

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Okay so as per usual, a wrench has been thrown in our surgery plans. 😂 Due to the extensiveness of the operation Dr. Salazar wants to hold Zelda’s blood thinners for at least 3 days and bridge with Lovenox injections. So, surgery has been postponed yet again to Thursday, March 4th (her aunt and uncle’s birthday 🎂) with a start time around 8:30 am. She will be admitted to IMU tomorrow morning and will be awaiting her operation on Thursday.

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Zelda had her CT Friday and it went well. We were able to go home with scheduled return early Tuesday morning @ 0530. (Dr. Salazar wants Dr. Brown to be available for her surgery to place stents in the operating room if need be so they bumped her surgery to Tuesday, March 2nd @ 0730. I can’t complain since Tuesday is our favorite day after all. 🤷🏻‍♀️) I’ll update accordingly.

🚨Please be kind and mindful when I am or am not updating. It’ll be just Oscar and I in the hospital and our focus will definitely be on Zelda, her sisters, and keeping ourselves taken care of first and foremost. This is a lot for us and we will do the best we can. Remember no news is good news and know I will update whenever I get updates that are pertinent. 🖤

Thank you all for everything and please lift Zelda up in prayer, positivity, love and light- all of it. She will do great I just know it! 🤞🏼🙌🏼🙏🏼

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We received a call yesterday from CV surgery. Because of this nasty winter storm Zelda’s pre-op CT scan had to be moved from today to next Friday which in turn pushed surgery from Tuesday, February 23 to Monday, March 1. It’s not a Tuesday because the 1st just sounds like a good day; first day of the work week and first day of the month. So we get a little extra home time with Z Bug until the big day. 🙌🏼 This is the time where it starts to hit this mama hard; the days leading up to handing my baby over to the surgery team. The emotions overtake me and I’m still not good at allocating them to where they should properly go (hello compartmentalization & weird coping mechanisms 😅); it gets so much harder each time. Not to be selfish but I need some prayers, light and good vibes; I’m struggling. 🖤 Also, throw a few Dad’s way too- he needs some even if he says he doesn’t. 🙄🤣💪🏼

On another note, we have a reusable shopping bag FULL of cards and mailers and boxes from y’all and she can’t hardly wait to open them! 💕💌 We are so grateful for everyone who has taken the time to send her well wishes and cards and things. She will have the best time opening them all and they will be a beautiful addition to her hospital room decor.

Oh and this week, we survived the great winter storm of 2021 in Texas 🙌🏼 and she saw “snow” ( aka nasty sleet-y ice*😂❄️) for the first time in her cognitive life. (She “saw” it when she was a couple months old in 2017) To say she was excited would be a major understatement. She got to go outside and touch all the icy things and had an absolute blast. It’s amazing to see her innocent little wonder. She is such an absolute light and is starting to become the annoying little sister we always knew she would be. This girl is hilarious, and always keeps us on our toes; we are all going to miss her while she is inpatient. Until then, we are going to savor all the time we have with her at home sans restrictions. 💔💪🏼🌺

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Zelda made Dazzling Diva Photography - The Woodlands - Houston Photographer’s blog! 🤩

Project Love | Nominate a Princess for a Day | Dazzling Diva Photography Learn more about Project Love & feel inspired by Zelda's story. Nominate a Princess for a Day by Dazzling Diva Photography here!

Bailey Daniel delivered a HUGE surprise from Amber Bohr, Chrystal Folse, & the employees of Schulman's Movie Bowl Grille - Bay City for Zelda. 🤩🍿📽🕹

We cannot even BEGIN to express how blessed we are to be part of such an amazing community. They have gifted Zelda a chance to have a safe and normal outing that we haven’t been able to have for so long. She will be able to go to the movie theater and watch whatever she wants to watch, play games, or whatever her little heart desires. We are able to do this because they have arranged for her own personal day at the theater- just us and the employees. In the midst of all the COVID chaos, this is just what Zelda needs. Thank you so so much for helping Zelda have a dose of normalcy and fun. ❤️

📌EDITED TO ADD: **Local folks, they merged Old Ocean and Van Vleck PO Boxes. I signed up online and I got an Old Ocean box by accident. 🥴 So that’s why the zip code is different than the usual Van Vleck zip.**📌💌❤️❣️

A lot of y’all have asked us what we need right now and honestly, we have all that we need. 🥰🙌🏼🙏🏼

What we would like to ask, if you’re interested, is that you send Zelda a letter, doodle, get well soon card, Valentine’s card, etc... This girl loves her some mail and honestly, you could send her literally anything and she would be oh so excited about it. 😂 We have a PO Box set up for her mail and plan on saving them for her hospital stay to lift her spirits. 🙂 If you would like to send her a letter or get well soon card please do! It will make her feel so special. 💕

🏥 She is going to be admitted on Friday, February 19 and surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, February 23. 🏥