Heart update!

I didn't sleep much last night because I was worried about Liv's cardiology appointment today. She hasn't been to the cardiologist since November. Everything looked good back then but every time we go, I cross my fingers hoping for good news. It's really scary not knowing if things will be better or worse. Paul came with us today, I was glad because I really hate going alone. First she had her EKG, she cried a little bit but she was pretty good for most of it. The nurse was trying to play with her and distract her. She gave her some Dora stickers and Liv was happy, for about a minute. Then she had her echo, that took longer but luckily they had a Dora DVD so she watched that while they checked her. It only worked for about half the time, she would cry for a few minutes and then watch Dora for a few minutes and then cry again. So it went okay but she got pretty mad about halfway through and tried jumping off my lap. When we saw the cardiologist he said he was really happy with her weight gain. She jumped from 5% last visit to 10% this visit, he said that's really great. I asked a bunch of questions (of course) and he put my mind at ease a bit. Her coarc repair still looks good, it's growing with her and it's wide open like it should be. Her asd and vsd (holes in her heart) closed a little more but not completely. They are going to keep monitoring them and if she ends up needing surgery it won't be until she's around four or five. I'm really hoping that she doesn't need another surgery, the doctor seemed optimistic that she wouldn't. He also said that sometimes they can do a cath procedure instead of open heart surgery. I rather do that, well.. I rather it not be an issue at all but I'm really hoping we are done with heart surgery, I don't know if I can get through it again. I'm glad the doctors are happy with her progress and I hope she continues to do well. We don't have to go back for another six months, her next appointment is the first week in December so I'm going to try to put all my worries aside until then!

 

These pictures pretty much describe the whole visit. Distracted, crying, distracted.