Dr. G saves the day

Elijah's cardiology appointment went well this morning, minus the contortionist act I had to do during his echo. He weighed 25 lbs. 3 oz., which is almost a one pound gain from last month! He certainly is not growing taller, though. He has been hovering right around 30.5-31 inches for about six months now. His oxygen sats were at 100%. I know, I couldn't believe it, either! I still get a little teary when I see such high numbers on that monitor that I dreaded looking at for such a long time. His blood pressure was pretty high. More on that in a bit. His heart function looked perfect, thank you, GOD, and no fluid retention was seen on his chest xray.

The only issue right now is the narrowing of his right pulmonary artery, and we already knew about this. Dr. G thinks that this is causing some disturbances in his body. This could explain the puffy eyes, and also the high pressure in the right side of his heart, which was revealed through today's echo results. The right side of his heart will always have to work extra hard, but right now the pressure on that side is even higher than his already high baseline is.

The plan is to get him to the cath lab in November or December (instead of January, like we had been planning) so Dr. G can widen the stent in his pulmonary artery. This will hopefully help blood to flow through the artery more easily which should decrease the pressure in the right side of his heart. In the meantime, we will give him Lasix as needed for his mild fluid retention, only when he is appearing extra puffy, and otherwise continue on with life normally (normally, ha!).

I feel a thousand times better after talking to our wonderful cardiologist and having him do such a thorough exam of our little boy. I still think Dr. G should just move in with us. We would even give him our bedroom!