Friday, June 10, 2011

6 month cardiac checkup for THE Natalie.

Well today was a pretty kick ass day!
I won't hesitate to say, however, that I was sort of a nervous wreck before her 6 month heart checkup. I always do that though... work myself up over nothing. I know that there's never a guarantee that things are just peachy with her heart, but I always try to lean against the "most likely". Today, I sort of knew that she had been doing fantastic but you just never know.
From now on when it comes to her heart checkups I will be sure to just slap myself in the face. Any jolt into reality is a worthy slap.
Because this little girl of mine is doing PERFECTO. Not only is her heart functioning perfectly (ie. no leaky valves, no leaky anything.. perfect function for anyone with half of a heart) but this kid wowed the hell out me. Yes, that makes 2 curse words in this post but guys, I only curse more when A.)I am super happy or B.) I am super angry.
Natalie hopped up on the scale, had her O2 checked (a beautiful and perfect 88% which shows that it's increasing slowly which is exactly what should be happening), had her blood pressure checked all with zero difficulty. No crying. No whining. Just smiles.
Then came the EKG. Now, this I sort of expect her to protest about because even though I prepare her by telling her a day or two in advance about "no owies", "no pokey things" (which means another word for shots, a label she made up) she still hates the EKG stickers. I really don't think I can blame her. They use 10. That's 10 sticky gluey stickers on her chest and belly and then you're connected to a computer where you can't move.
This kid, kicked ass. She sat there and can you guess it??? she smiled.
Today, so far = WINNING. (Thanks Charlie Sheen)

And then we waited for a short time for her echocardiogram. The ladies put a Barbie movie on for her. She lay there so patient..shirtless..and patient. LAYING on the bed. She usually freaks out about this.
Again, to prepare her I call the wand a "princess magic wand" that they use to take pictures of her heart. Well, Natalie was all about it because she just lay there calm and giggled when the echo tech spoke to her. Natalie wouldn't tell her her name so the tech called her "Bob", which was pretty funny to both of us. Throughout the whole test we all laughed, made jokes, and it was actually the best echo experience we've ever had. It was surreal. It really was.

Everything is perfect. I was able to finally tell our cardiologist how awesome Natalie's energy level is. I was also finally able to brag about how she rarely has to take a break when doing anything physical.
Needless to say, her doctor is very very impressed and couldn't be happier.
We stick to 6 month visits instead of graduating to yearly because of her half of a heart. To be really honest here, we weren't thrilled with the idea of yearly visits to begin with so this immediately made me feel good.
And here are some photos of our visit!
 pulse ox is at 88%. That's a mighty fine number. 

 watching "Barbie Somethingorother" while waiting for her echo. 
 my brave girl. 
You know that your 4 year old has gotten so big when even all of the doctors and nurses comment about how well they deal with their cardiac visits now. No screaming or crying for this gal. More reminder: a little bit over a year ago we had a sedated echocardiogram at Children's. What a difference a year makes!!
And we are all done. Time to go home!

2 comments:

cartes said...

so awesome to hear dawn! Im glad she did not throw a fit and that she is doing so well!

Wodzisz Family said...

What an amazing check-up. I am looking forward to an appointment like that with Hope...I guess it will be a couple more years. Natalie is an inspiration!