At Ellie's past few check ups, Dr. Kendall noticed a heart murmur - which turns out is completely common for babies. They usually grow out of them. But at her 9 month check up a few weeks ago, Dr. Kendall didn't like the sound of this murmur and that it was still there. She wanted Ellie to be checked out by a cardiologist. So we did. They ran 3 tests: a chest x-ray, an Echo-cardiogram (ultrasound on the heart) and an EKG (measures the electricity in the heart - pictured). Turns out Ellie has an Atrial Septal Defect - hole in her heart between the left and right atriums about 1 centimeter big, which is in the moderate category. And from the chest x-ray, the doctor said her heart is a little mis-shaped. BUT the doctor wasn't completely worried because she has yet to show any serious symptoms, like out of breath, trouble eating, etc. Worse case scenario, she would have to have surgery. Now a days, they can do it through a vein in the groin and don't have to open up the heart. Wow, the things they can do! He said he wants to run all the tests again a year from now but thinks this little hole may just fix itself.Aside from remembering fun terminology from my college Anatomy class - which I took two times and not because I loved it - I learned that Ellie loves her binkie to be dipped in cherry flavoring. These nurses know how to calm down a baby!
2 comments:
Oh, poor Ellie. I'm glad she was calm through her appointment...and so were you. That's a rough thing to go through. We'll keep her in our prayers. Do they make cherry flavored binkies for adults?
Oh, poor thing. I didn't know about this. Hope everything corrects itself.
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