Heart Follow Up

I posted on FB that Hailey's heart appointment was okay, but realized I never elaborated.  We headed downtown early Monday morning to Hailey's cardiology appointment.  We try to avoid the main campus as much as possible...the parking and traffic are annoying.  Unfortunately, the scheduling department messed up and scheduled us downtown.  One thing I do love, love, love about the cardio department is their promptness.  I've never have an appointment start late.  I've never sat in the waiting room for more than a few minutes.  We started with the nurse who weighed and measured Hailey.  She messed up her measurements so I didn't even take a look at them.  We are at our pediatrician next week so I'll get them there.  We didn't have any luck with a blood pressure.  Hailey moved too much.  Thanks to a lot of signing and the help of the iPad, we were able to get all of the EKG wires stuck to Hailey and her EKG run with little movement on Hailey's part.  Getting a pulse ox, took a little longer, but we finally got one at 98. 

Most children's hospitals are teaching hospitals so there are always extra nurses, doctors, students, fellows, etc.  The fellow came in shortly after the nurse.  He asked the standard questions...any color changes, any breathing issues, any feeding issues, etc.  He was satisfied with my answers and left.  Within minutes, our cardiologist came in.  She looked over Hailey.  Listened to her heart, stomach and lungs.  Checked both her OHS incision scar and her chest tube scar. 

We are going to continue our annual visits until Hailey gets older (somewhere between 7-10).  A lot of it hinges on how her appointment goes at age 4.  At that point, we are going to need repeat her echo (ultrasound of the heart).  Her temperament and personality will determine if she needs to be under general anesthesia.  The cardiologist isn't concerned with the patch of the VSD, but more concerned with the fact that one side of her heart has a higher blood pressure than the other.  It is due to that side having to work harder with the hole...more blood volume was on that side so it had to work harder.  The cardiologist is anticipating the pressures to be more equal during the echo.  If not, Hailey might have to take blood pressure medicine to regulate it.  I'm not going to get worked up over that now...it is 2 years away and there is not a single thing we can do at this point. 

Overall, the cardiologist agreed that Hailey looks good.  Her EKG should a perfect rhythm to her heart and she thought her growth and everything else looked good.  We enthusiastically told her we would see her in another year.  I never dreamed that first year that there would ever be a time that we weren't concerned about her heart and heart failure.  We were seeing the cardio every 2-3 weeks.  There seemed to be no end....no time to catch our breath.  Seems so long ago....


Here are pictures that I wouldn't let myself even dream about when we were waiting for open heart surgery.  Hailey driving her brothers crazy while they finish homework because she wants them to play with her.

No, I didn't intentionally get this shot, but, yes, I did get a picture of her eating a penny.  Don't worry!  I did get it out!

Ian telling her all the reasons she has to leave him alone.

What??  He told me to get away?!?!?!?

Nevermind, I will find something else to get into!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!!!