We got up early this morning for Avery's cardiology appointment. My little girl has it all figured out, lol, she made a whimper when we hit Woodrow Wilson- she knew where we were going! Thankfully, she is doing much better with her appointments. She used to scream bloody murder upon entering the door of any office just to approach the desk. Now, she may whine a little, but really does well unless someone is touching her. She even walked up to the scale this morning and stood on it at first! One of the echo-techs, Joan, came in to blow bubbles and play music on her phone for Avery during her EKG, which was very sweet. Avery stopped screaming for a brief second, but she's not going to stop until it's done- hard-headed like her mommy! Thankfully, she tells everyone "bye-bye", waves and blows kisses, so they can't not love her, lol! We then went on the get her echo done, and ended up, as usual, holding her down. In the end, it's over a lot quicker that way. Dr. Ebeid is happy with the way everything looks which is a relief. Jake and I both had some anxiety going in to the appointment. Everything has been so normal for a good while now, sometimes, we tend to get nervous because things have gone so smoothly! Avery's pulmonary cadavor valve is still leaking (it actually has been since they did the surgery) which is fairly normal, and it is not significant enough to worry about right now. Like I've said before, we're hoping Avery weighs enough by the time she needs that valve replaced to have Dr. E and Dr. Salazar team up to replace it in the cath lab- no OPEN heart would be a beautiful thing! Her aortic valve which used to be her pulmonary valve, is still working perfectly- thank you Dr. Bacha!! Avery's coarctation that was repaired in her first surgery, and then ballooned later, is still ok, but will need to be ballooned again down the road. Basically, things haven't changed, and she is still on the right path- thank you Lord! Dr. E had previously mentioned taking her off of her meds, but isn't going to yet. That isn't really an issue for us, because Avery is so conditioned, it's not a problem. We scheduled a cardiac MR for December to get a more accurate view of things. The following is information from a UMMC article about the MR...
"Compared to echocardiograms, the imaging produced by a cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) exam provides excellent visualization of the entire heart and surrounding structures. It is an excellent exam to assess for suspected coronary artery anomalies in children. The University of Mississippi Medical Center is believed to be one of 31 places in the world that offers MR coronary artery angiograms."
As you can see, we are very lucky to have access to this machine! I think it will give us a better 'piece of mind' to see exactly what is going on with Avery's heart too. She will have general anesthesia for the MR, so we scheduled an anestesia appointment prior. She will then see Dr. Ebeid in January to discuss the MR and have her normal check-up. I'm so proud of my sweet little munchkin, and so very thankful for Batson's cardiology department!
Next up, Avery has her VCUG and kidney check-up with Dr. Harmon. We are still hoping and praying that her kidney reflux has cleared up, so there will be no procedure. We'd also like to get her off of her daily, prophylactic antibiotic she has taken since birth. Thankfully, Avery hasn't had any infections, and it had gotten better at our last appointment. Prayers that it has resolved itself by August!
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