Cardiology Update

Exhale. . .

The big appointment was today and Connie was near perfect, as usual. I'll quickly go over the main points and then talk about how cute he was and give a little more detail.

His sats were 99!! BP was 100. He was 25.9 lbs. and 33.5 inches tall. I have a feeling his murmur is louder b/c this is the first time I've seen them listen to it with the stethoscope not even touching his chest all the way. They held it at a 45 degree angle. Dr. Bromberg said, "It's very noisy in there." It's hard to tell if all the noise is from the harmless residual VSD's or from the leaky valves. His mitral, pulmonary and aortic valves are leaking. Based on the echo it looks to be mild/moderate on all of them. The right ventricle is pumping at higher pressure due to the pulmonary obstruction (narrowing of his conduit). His pacemaker is functioning perfectly and we don't have to go back for 9 months!!

Basically, there isn't really an explanation for why Connie is doing better than he was after we returned from Michigan a year ago. Although he still has issues with his heart, he is TOLERATING these issues phenomenally well and our doctor sees no reason why if he's doing so well now that he won't be doing just as well 10 or 20 years from now with the valves he's got. Mild/moderate leaks can be withstood for some time so that is what we are hoping for and EXPECTING!!

He was such a good boy. I'm not kidding. After getting two flu shots this morning, it's a wonder he would even enter another doctor's office this afternoon. This kid was a little upset at being torn away from the little tykes crazy coupe in the waiting room, but after he got over that, he was the poster child for good behavior during long appointments. We were there two hours and 45 minutes and it didn't even include an x-ray or ekg! First he got height and weight. Then we went in and he let Colleen listen to him after Kelly oooooed and ahhhhhhd for a bit. Colleen took his bp and hooked the sat monitor up and he just gave her his finger like he was a pro. He didn't pull any of this off or mess with it. Then she had to place the stickers for his pacemaker check and hook up the wiring. He helped me hold the "mouse" over his belly the whole time and he just smiled and showed off his good behavior for the doctor. Then Dr. Bromberg listened himself and asked questions and watched him walk around and play. Because he weighs more now, we are going up a bit on the dosage of his two meds. Dr. Bromberg told him to get worn out so he'd lay nice and still for his "pictures" (echo). You would not believe it, but this kid lay still with his arms up over his head, twirling his hair, for about 40 minutes. He even let her do the subcostal view without pitching a fit like he normally does. I asked her if most 18 month old boys behave this way for their echo and she said NEVER! It took forever for Dr. Bromberg to review the echo so Connie walked up and down the long hallway flirting and showing off for Colleen. He fell and got a rug burn on his forehead so a sucker quickly cheered him up. Good thing he was still shirtless b/c he was a sticky mess by the time he was through!

We've got to go get labs done-yucky blood draw:( but other than that we are done for 9 months. He said he was tempted to let him go a year between appts., but for now he feels better doing it in 9 months. We'll still use the home machine to send pacemaker checks into the office every three months.

Thanks for keeping him in your prayers today. Since we have to have drama at every turn, I thought I'd mention that Mookie is going back to the dermatologist tomorrow morning because her birthmark has been scabbing and bleeding. Greg is freaked out that it is melanoma. So much for just checking it again when she's five! Please pray that nothing invasive has to be done, or that nothing major is found. It is on the back of her head about two inches above her hairline.