Cardiology Appointment

A few days ago, we took Abbie to Primary Children's for her cardiology check up. It's kind of sad when your baby starts crying before anybody even touches her because she knows exactly what's coming. I hate having to hold her still while some stranger is jabbing a needle into her arm. I made Lance do it this time, but she just kept looking up at me with those sad little eyes saying, "Mom, how could you let them do this to me?" Anyway, she was sedated and then they did an echocardiogram and a pacemaker check. As of right now, her pacemaker battery should last another 5 1/2 years which is awesome. We thought it would have to be replaced in the next few years, but now she won't have to have that surgery until she's over 6 years old. Her echo looked good but when her cardiologist talked to us afterwards, he was just a little bit concerned about the pressures they measured. They couldn't tell from the echo where the high pressure was coming from. If it's coming from the left atria, everything is just fine, but if it's coming from the right atria then that's a problem. Dr. Puchalski told us that his gut is telling him that everything is just fine, but he wants to make sure. So, in the next few weeks Abbie will be getting a heart catheterization. This is where they insert a long, flexible tube called a catheter into a vein in the leg and thread it up to the heart. With this procedure, they can measure heart pressures a lot more accurately than with an echo. We haven't scheduled it yet but we'll let you know what happens.