Cardiology Update

Yesterday was another Cardiology appt at Children’s. Lila was scheduled for another cardiac echo, and an EKG. Of course, the only appointment available was at 9am, so I resigned myself to getting up at 5:15am, so I could have us both showered, dressed, and fed, and out the door by 7am, to sit in rush hour traffic.

Well, wouldn’t you just know, Lila decided she wanted to get up to eat at 4:15am. She’d been asleep since about 9:30 the night before, so there was no putting her off, so I got up for the day at that point. We were able to get out the door, and on the road on time…

To sit in traffic for over 90 minutes. I hadn’t seen traffic that horrible in the morning, since way back when Lila was first admitted to Children’s. I again resigned myself to the idea of her screaming in the back seat for the duration of the ride, and hoped for the best. Lila normally hates when the car stops, for any reason. So stop and go traffic for 25 miles was bound to be an interesting experience for us.

Shockingly, she slept. THE WHOLE WAY IN. She didn’t wake up until I took her out of the car in the garage at the hospital. I still can’t believe my luck.

Lila was NOT pleased about the echo, and pretty much yelled during the whole thing. This was probably the first time I got a little aggravated at Children’s, because the ultrasound tech wasn’t very patient with us. I know that during ultrasounds, the quieter/more still a person is, the easier it is to get the pictures they want. Try telling that to a 10 week old. It was apparent to me that the tech was getting annoyed that Lila was so upset, and kept asking me “do you think she wants to burp?” (I was feeding her w/ a bottle, to try to keep her calm), “do you want to take a break?”, and “do you think she’ll go to sleep?”…um, no. She’s 10 weeks old, in a strange place, and you are poking at her with a gel-covered wand, so, no, she’s NOT going to fall asleep or calm down anytime soon.

Thankfully, she got the pictures they needed, and we were able to move on. The EKG was pretty much the same scenario: angry baby, who now just wants people to stop poking at her. But that was over fairly quickly, and Lila settled in to sleep in my arms while we waited for her cardiologist, and the results from the echo and EKG.

We did end up waiting a bit, but I always expect that when we are at Children’s. I know when Lila was really sick, her doctors would appear in mere minutes at her bedside if there was even a question about her well-being. So I assume they are doing the same for all of the babies and children that are there at any given time. Her cardiologist finally came in, and we went over the results of her latest tests. There really hasn’t been any change in either of the two things they are monitoring her for. The ventricle depression is still there, but it hasn’t worsened. (Refresher: one of the ventricle chambers of Lila’s heart isn’t pumping as vigorously as it should be, and the doctors aren’t sure why.) The PDA (the valve thing that is open when all babies are born) has not closed yet, but it looks like it’s narrowing. We are going to go back in two months for another echo and EKG.

For the ventricle depression, her cardiologist said that as long as she does not seem to be having any episodes of SVT, and is continuing to gain weight, he is happy. It is reassuring to him to see her gaining weight like she has been (she was 11lbs, 2oz at this appointment). For the PDA issue, they will just continue to monitor it, and as she approaches one year old, we may opt to have it closed surgically (they can go in through a vein in her leg, so it would be minimally invasive).

He also told us the results from when Lila had to wear the Holter monitor–nothing irregular to report. She had no SVT during the 24 hours she wore the monitor. She is going to have to do another 24 hours with it before our next appointment though. Overall, she seems to be doing well, which I always like to hear.

Lila proceeded to behave spectacularly for the rest of the day yesterday. Jon started up his MBA classes again last night, so I was on Parent Patrol solo, for the first time. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about bedtime…but Lila must have known mama needed a break, because she went right down at 8pm, and slept until 3am! That gave me a boost of confidence I needed, for sure. So for the next 7 weeks, Lila and I will be on our own on Mondays and Wednesdays, wish us luck. Jon is sad he can’t be around those two nights, but we know that him finishing his MBA is important to us, so we will make it work.

I’ll leave you with a photo I took of the little one this morning, during her THREE AND A HALF HOUR NAP. Granted, she was in my bed, but still! A nap! During the day! It was a miracle.