Healthy Heart, Happy Mom

I was quite anxious about Hailey's cardiology appointment this morning.  I had a hard time sleeping last night.  It is an irrational fear because her heart has been repaired.  Hailey is relatively healthy.  Knock on wood.  Her vision is good, her hearing is good, she's growing, she's on the growth charts, her heart is good, her thyroid is good (that we know of...she has a blood test coming up), and she eats good.  I think when Hailey was born and I read books on Down syndrome.  They always listed all the medical conditions that your child with Ds "could" have.  I think in the back of my mind, I always feel like we are teetering on the edge of a cliff and at any minute a doctor will give us bad news at an appointment and we will be free falling off of that cliff.

I do love our cardio appointments because our doctor is fabulous about being on time!  We arrived 15 minutes early and were called back 5 minutes before our appointment.  Hailey has always hated doctor appointments...EVER appointment.  First came height and weight.  Not a single tear...not a single arched back.  There was a "friend" from Child Life that was with us armed with an iPad.  Hailey didn't seem too interested at first because she was too busy trying to figure out what the nurse was doing to her.  Then came time for pulse ox.  We have never gotten a good reading on the first try.  There have even been appointments where they gave up because Hailey never cooperated and didn't show any signs of distress.  100 first try!  Woot! Woot!

We tried her right hand, but apparently that didn't work because she wanted to use her right hand on the ipad, so we switched!

 The appointment was going so well that I was afraid of what was coming next...the EKG.  Last year, we had to physically hold Hailey down and hold her arms down.  Wow, has my little girl grown up.  I'm not saying she was happy, but she was cooperative!  She gave the nurse dirty looks and didn't take her eyes off of her the entire time she covered her in leeds, but she didn't cry and she didn't pull them off!  It was funny watching Hailey's body language.  All of her therapists have always commented and complimented on Hailey's posture...she slouched so much trying to make sure they couldn't attach them to her.

Keeping an eye on them.

Totally avoiding the ipad...only focused on the nurse

Did you really do this to me?!?!?

 Great EKG results!  The next two photos are a little blurry, but I have to share them with you because it summarizes Hailey's doctor appointments.

After the EKG, I put her shirt back on.  She looked at me, signed and said, "All done"

She followed it with "Up, home"

Bad news...we hadn't even seen the doctor yet!  Dr. D came in within seconds of Hailey's plea to go home.  She was still very cooperative but wanted to assist the doctor with the stethoscope and then took over the stethoscope to show Dr. D how to do it.  Then in true Hailey fashion, she wanted the doctor's earrings :-)  If she could have, she would have left with the stethoscope and the earrings!  I'm not sure if watching Doc McStuffins and playing with her doctor set helped the appointment or it is because she is growing up or maybe a combination of the two, but it was a fantastic appointment!

Good news, everything looks good and we go back in a year.  At that point, if she thinks Hailey will be still for an echo, we will schedule one then or we will wait another year.

I left with a sigh of relief.  I "might" have bought Hailey a little jewelry for her birthday after we left ;-)

This last pic is just because she's cute :-)