H's dear heart

So, after much stress and anxiety, I finally took H in to have his heart re-scanned. For those who don't remember, he had a mild VSD at birth. He had an echocardiogram and ultrasound of his heart at 8 days old, and we were told to have him re-scanned at a year to see if surgery might be needed at around his second birthday. Since Mommy was nervous and not willing to really allow any kind of surgery on her perfectly healthy child, and Daddy was deployed at the one year mark, the follow-up was avoided. At the two year mark, we were in the process of preparing for a move, and re-entry into the military. Therefore, as we neared the three year mark, and the new baby has shown to have the same defect pending, we finally agreed to get him in to see the Pediatric Cardiologist.

And so, early (for H) this morning, we loaded up into the van and headed to the hospital for the fateful exam - Mommy still nervous because Daddy is again deployed and the potential news could be too much to bear. K is happy to be out and about with new places to explore and H is hesitant about meeting the doctor and what will happen, since its been a while since he's seen a doctor and doesn't know what to expect. A little time in the waiting room to play with toys, a trip to a room filled with Spiderman stickers and wall hangings to be weighed (40.5 lbs) and measured (39") along with blood pressure from both arms and a leg and a cool check of the pulse on one finger that gave Mommy flashback's to H's first week in the hospital with his E.T. toe.

Finally, into the echocardiogram in the Spongebob room, which consisted of a number of "stickers" on H's chest, legs and arms which were then attached to probes, and he had to lie still for a few moments (tell that to an almost 3 year old!). Thank goodness for an experienced tech who has done this before with children and was smart enough to let him hold on to the cars he was playing with.

Finally, we met with the wonderful cardiologist who had done our fetal echo a few weeks ago. She got down on the floor with H while he played trucks and listened to his heart, then asked what kinds of movies he likes, so she could set up the TV in the Ultrasound room. Luckily, H has been in ultrasounds with me before, and has an idea of what happens when the belly gets gooped up and checked out, so he was okay with that part. Doc gave him a piggy flashlight to play with in the semi-darkness and got to work. All-in-all, he sat pretty quietly and with a few minor exceptions, he did well with her proddings.

The good news is, after all of that, there is no more pin hole in his heart, and Doc said that his heart is as healthy as someone who's VSD healed in utero and that unless someone got ahold of his old medical records, noone would ever know that he had ever had a hole, so this is a huge relief for Mommy, and Daddy.

As for Daddy, when we all got home, Mommy logged on and there he was, online on Yahoo messenger with his webcam enabled. Wooo hoooo! Internet access from the barracks was fantastic at 3 a.m. local time, and hopefully it will be constant during his "home port" time in Oki.

And a final bit of unrelated, but appreciated good news - we've been purging un-needed items, selling a few things on Craig's List and so on. We finally sold a wheelbarrow that was taking up space in the yard (as opposed to our storage unit which we finally cleared). $20 richer, we're off to Home Depot for a new bottle of water for the water cooler and a nap for the kiddies, thus time for Mommy to Blog here!