Brooke's heart

Brooke was suppose to have her 6 month check in with the cardiologist in January, but the Dr. had to cancel and we got pushed to April. I guess that is good that she isn't a high priority?! Typically we do the Echo, EKG, and meet with the Dr. at the same time. But due to hard schedules we had to split it up. We did the Echo at the end of March and the appointment with the Dr. on April 2 - a Saturday at 8am. (You can't say we don't love this kid and are willing to do anything to get her the right care! Her cardiologist is the head pediatric cardiologist so we'll bend our schedules to see him.)

We've done enough Echo appointments to be very prepared -- bring snacks and water for Brooke to sit still during the Echo. Although she still gets nervous and has to sit on my lap, she does great. She laid on me, ate her crackers and stayed very still. She was very polite, saying thank you and "you're the best doctor" to the tech - who was very impressed! She weighted in at 28.4 lbs and 37 inches.

Fortunately my parents were in town this weekend so they took Jack to his tball game at 8:30am so we could take Brooke to see the cardiologist. To recap.... at her 2 year old check up, her primary care physician couldn't hear the hole in her heart. The cardiologist confirmed in January 2010 that it was closing. In July 2010, the hole was still there, about the same size but that means it was smaller since the heart is growing bigger. So at this appointment we were hopeful to hear it was still closing -- maybe, just maybe that it was closed. The doctor listed and said it sounded differently. Which could be a hydration/dehydration issues -- apparently if she is more hydrated it sounds differently. But more that that... it sounds differently because it is smaller. So much so, that the Dr. had to check the Echo to see if the hole was still there. It was there but closing!!! He was so pleased with this that he doesn't want to see her for another year (instead of the 6 months that we were doing). He said that there was a more than 50% chance of it being closed by then!!