Cambrie's Cardiologist Appointment

A week ago, we met with the pediatric cardiologist for the first time. Many of you already know this, but for those friends and family who don't know, I thought we should put an update on the blog. We were very nervous to meet with him because we weren't sure what to expect. The Friday after Thanksgiving, Suzanne came down and watched the three older kids and we took Cambrie to the hospital to get the required chest x-ray and the EKG done. We were expecting those to be long, involved tests - however, they were easy. We waited longer than it actually took to do the tests. It was an interesting experience watching Cambrie have a chest x-ray. They had her strapped in this tube-like contraption with her arms above her head. She didn't like it! She didn't mind the EKG. She smiled at the technician the whole time.By the end of the chest x-ray, Cambrie was just gripping the tape at the top. Cambrie smiling at the EKG technician while hooked up to 13 leads.

We are very pleased with the doctor. He seemed very thorough and really explained things well. He is one of the first doctors I have come across that didn't make me feel rushed. Towards the end of the exam, he even had me nurse Cambrie for awhile so he could come back and get a good blood pressure reading. He knew she was getting hungry and restless and so he said he would wait for me to feed her so he could get a good reading.

The good news is that Cambrie seems to be doing great. He was amazed at what a good, happy baby she was. He just kept saying, "you can tell she is happy and she really likes people. I don't usually see babies like that!" He also was pleased with her weight gain. Babies with heart defects often struggle gaining weight. He walked right in the room and said, "well, it doesn't look like she is missing any meals!" This made me very happy to hear!

The EKG and chest x-ray are normal. He said he couldn't even hear the murmur all of the time. He had to search to find it at times and it was small. He said he guesses it is about 2 mm now. When we first found out a month ago, it was 5 mm. He said 5 mm is a large hole and it sounds very small now. It seems good to us that it has closed that much in just a month. He thinks it will take care of itself and there should be nothing to worry about. He wants to see her again when she is 6 months old just to be sure. We will have another round of chest x rays and an EKG again then too. Very encouraging news. We left feeling so much comfort. He gave us no indication that he was worried about her prognosis. We are so thankful for everyone's prayers!