Cardiology

Iz's cardiology appointment was fantastic.

When we got there, we were the only ones in the waiting room and she had fun walking around and bringing me magazines off the tables :p  She loves to just go, pick one up, bring it to me, go back, repeat, over and over LOL  The tech came out and called us back and she did NOT like being in the EKG room.  She fussed and cried as soon as we walked in and so we got a weight of "about 37 pounds" because she wouldn't hold still long enough for a more accurate weight.  Height was a no-go as well so they got a ballpark figure from the one time she held still for a second :\ 

She was not having any of it when it came to getting the stickers on for the EKG so the tech asked if he could get her a sucker--we didn't even open it, she just held it and looked at it and he got the EKG first try :p

Next we headed to Dr. E's office--she opened her sucker and started licking it and when the doc came in, she fussed at him about having to lay down for an echo until we reminded her she had a sucker.  She HATES having people touching her scar so echoes are usually one long scream-fest but that sucker kept her calm and quiet and she laid there watching the screen working her way through that tootsie pop ;-)

The extra heart sounds the doctors were hearing and the clicking I sometimes hear are expected and normal for her--her cardio said that some of it is caused by the fact that she has two superior vena cavas instead of just one (a normal one has a branch from the left and one from the right and they come together in a y before entering the heart.  Iz's branches never came together so she has two separate single vessels that feed into her heart.  They come from the correct places and both connect to the proper chamber of the heart, they just are separate instead of a y) and some of it is simply a side effect of having surgery and having heart tissue disturbed and "remapped".  He says it isn't something to take for granted that the extra sounds are always OK and that is one reason why she has yearly appointments so we can take a good look at her EKG and echo and make sure there are no other problems causing extra sounds.  As long as her tests look good (for her), the sounds are just her normal.

The best news of all?  Her right pulmonary artery stenosis is GONE.  Her surgeon thought there was a chance the narrowed artery could open on its own and grow to match the left once her heart was fixed and the right side was being used normally (the left was overworked because of the blood flowing the wrong way through her VSD and being overcirculated through her lungs) and he was right!  It has caught up and her function is beautiful :)

Dr. E said that her heart will never be "normal" because her anatomy and surgery means her EKGs and heart sounds will always be "off" but her function right now is great and at the moment, she has no restrictions.  She has her own "normal" and he is optimistic that she will hold steady for a long while.  Just don't forget to keep those yearly appointments to make sure ;-)