Cambrie's Cardiologist Visit

We went to the cardiologist today. Cambrie was such a good girl. The doctor, once again, commented on what a great baby she is. He couldn't believe how calm and happy she was. He said pediatric cardiology would be easy if all kids were like Cambrie. He listened to her heart and did all of the physical examination things and he said he couldn't even hear the heart murmur anymore. He wasn't worried about it at all. He thought he would just see her again at a year and then perhaps have another echocardiogram (the ultrasound one) when she is 5 primarily to monitor the ASD because he said those are harder to detect by listening to her.

We thought we were in the clear. However, when he looked at her EKG, he was concerned. He said it had some abnormal readings on it. We again discussed some of our family history with him which lead him to make a call to a doctor at Primary Children's. He wanted to talk to a doctor more about Friedreich's Ataxia and what heart issues come with that disease. He also asked us if we had ever heard of QT syndrome or hypertophic cardiomyopathy in our families. Obviously, he isn't sure what is going on, but with some of our family histories, he wondered about these things. He said there are genetic factors he just doesn't know much about so he wants to consult others. He is going to have someone from Primary Children's read the EKG and talk to another doctor and then get back with us. Hopefully we will hear something today. He said if we haven't heard from him by Friday, to call him. He said he could end up referring us to Primary Children's to have things checked out.

It was a little disappointing. Even the doctor said that he was happy to be clearing one thing, but surprised to be discovering something else.

I dropped Mike off at work after the appointment and he has made me promise to try to stay off the internet and not to research all the different heart-related possibilities for Cambrie. I was researching things the other day and came across a blog about a baby with a heart problem that recently died days short of her first birthday. Obviously it upset me and I was crying when Mike came home from work. It is hard for me not to research things because I always want to know as much as I can - and the resources out there are incredible....however, I have to not freak out too much or spend too much time until we have a definite diagnosis as to what is causing the abnormal EKG.