Cardiology Check-Up

On November 19th Evin had an appointment with her cardiologist for her routine heart tests and just to see how things were looking after surgery.

She sported her heart shirt since we were visiting her heart doctor!

She weighed in at 15 lbs 1 oz and was almost 27 inches long.  Her oxygen saturation was at a perfect 100%.  It never gets old to look over at the pulse ox machine and see a 3 digit number for her sats.

I was nervous about her echo this time.  As she gets older, she gets wigglier.  I have been told by the echo techs before that starting at about 10 months it is difficult to get babies to lay down and hold almost completely still for about the 10 minutes that it takes them to get good readings.  Evin did surprisingly well and was entertained by a few small toys.  She didn't mind the echo probe on her chest and even liked to "help" move it around some.

The cardiologist came after reading her echo results and said, "Everything looks good!"

This poor girl has spent too much of her time waiting at doctor's offices!  At least we have good books to keep us entertained. :)

She said overall Evin is doing very well, but there are a couple of things they want to keep an eye on.

Her right ventricle pressures were about half systemic, which is acceptable, but they would like to see it come down a bit more.  She said it could have measured a little high if Evin had moved at the time it was being checked during the echo.  This could go up to about 2/3 and still be ok, but they would like to see it decrease a little.

Her pulmonary branch arteries (which were tiny) have each grown about a millimeter.  They are still a little small, so we pray they continue to grow.  If next time they are still small and have not grown, the might need to do a catherization to open them up.  While a cath is not open heart surgery, it does require anesthesia and a one-night (possibly longer) stay at the hospital.

She requested to see Evin back in about 7 or 8 months, so she won't have to visit the cardiologist again until the summer.  This is exciting but scary at the same time.  It makes me feel confident that Evin is doing well enough that she feels that she doesn't need to see Evin again for this extended amount of time.  I am used to Evin having an echo done and being checked on monthly or every couple of months, so I can already tell it is going to be a long and anxious wait until her next appointment.  Until then, we are praying for right ventricle pressures to decrease and her branch arteries to grow!