Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Children's Hospital

Today was my Cardiology Appointment at Seattle Children's Hospital. I got to see my favorite cardiologist and flirt with a whole bunch of very cute nurses. My day started very early since my first appointment was 9 this morning. I ate my breakfast in the car including my favorite grapes while Mommy treated herself to a latte. My first appointment was for an echocardiogram. That is where you get kind of like an ultrasound of your heart but it shows blood flow, valves, and even color codes the blood in each chamber to see that it is staying where it is supposed to. I was a wiggler during my exam and the nurse, Mommy, and a VeggieTales movie is what finally got me through the exam. Mommy had to hold me down and distract me so the technician could finish looking at my Mitral Valve.

Then, we had a 'lay-over'. Kind of like at the airport, where you have some time in between flights...well, we have the same thing but instead of cool airplanes, we are waiting for a different appointment. Our lay-over was an hour so we explored the hospital. I wasn't in the best of moods so Mommy finally found a cool push car for me to ride in. This was the ticket to the rest of our successful trip.

We finally met with our Cardiologist who had examined the results from the echo. First, good news. The good news is that my Mitral Valve is not regurgitating any worse than it was 6 months ago. I also gained weight! Hooray.

The bad news is that the Mitral Valve is still regurgitating pretty seriously so we are still looking at an eventual heart surgery but for now, we wait. The other bad news is that my hard time with colds and recovery from the colds is most likely related to my heart. If my illnesses continue and I seem to still be struggling with recovering from them, then I will have to start taking medication. Nothing serious. Just some Lasix but Mommy hates meds. She has been so very proud of being medication free. But if it means I'll not miss so much therapy and school, then great. We'll wait and see how I do over the next month or so. Jonah has a fever so we'll know pretty quickly if I recover well from the next illness.

Here are some pictures from the trip to Seattle. See you there in about 6 months!


Check out this cool car. Don't I look like a race car driver?
Hmm. Let's make sure we've got everything....VeggieTales? Yep. We're good.

Whose #1 and loves his grapes? ME!

7 comments:

Gretchen said...

Hey, glad to hear things went okay. Even if you don't particularly love the answer, at least there's a reason that he's been sick so often.... See you soon.

Sandi said...

You are SO #1 Dylan! Glad to hear things went okay. Lasiks aint so bad if that is the eventual result. Tommy has six plus meds a day and he is still gettin' sick and having trouble recovering from a cold! Grrr. Take care Gilligs!

Anonymous said...

glad to hear that you can hold off on surgery a little longer. we were down there today..Dragonboy gets braces in january down there..he got his hearing aides a week or so ago..

Carolyn said...

Love the pics and I love grapes too! And, yes you are #1 in my book.
Hugs,
Carolyn in WV

Eva and her 'rents said...

Glad to hear the news and if "meds" is the only bad part then I think that's alright! You're a great mom, K, for all that is part of your everyday life. I love grapes, too! Maybe D could remind E that she ate them several months ago. She's forgotten and thinks we're trying to poison her.

sunshine glynn said...

First of all, you are not allowed to make any more trips down to Children's without calling us first! We'd love to be your entertainment between "flights"! Second, do you show Dylan the picture of him that is up on the fifth floor? The girls and I always check it out. We give it a little kiss and say hello.

Dylan and Family said...

Sunshine,

What picture on the 5th floor? Sorry we didn't call you. I was going to but Ray and Jonah were sick causing some morning craziness.

But good news, we'll be down this weekend (possibly) for a visit to my folks. Want a visit?

Kristy