Avery Update, December 2012

Avery did such a great job at her most recent cardiology check-up! We've worked with her a lot...getting her to hug the doctors and nurses, telling her they want to help her, etc., and she is just now responding to it I think. She whined some as we approached the hospital, but she walked right onto the scale for weight and stood still for height before her appointment. She cried quite a bit for blood pressure, but recovered quickly. We still held her down for the majority of the echo; however, it wasn't as bad as normal. Dr. Ebeid came in to check on her and told the tech what he wanted to keep her from being too long. Her new nurse brought in a sucker and tiara which Avery loved, but she still fussed any way saying, "I done!" After that, she did amazing! Dr. Ebeid came in with 2 residents, and she spoke to them and smiled. She lifted her shirt for him to check her heart, then headed to the table for him to get a better listen. She even let both residents check her! Dr. E had seen her Halloween costume and said he saw she was a doctor. Avery said, "I Dr. Avery!" The funniest part was that one of the residents crouched down to the floor and she walked up, grabbed his face, and laid a big wet kiss on his cheek! He was so surprised (and so were we)! She went around the room to the other resident and Dr. E to give them love as well. Dr. Ebeid said she is "growing up and so cute." It really made my heart smile to see that type of interaction, especially with the man that saved her life! 

As far as the results, Avery is still doing well. Her pulmonary (cadavor) valve that was replaced in NYC is still leaking (and actually leaking more), but her heart is handling it well at this point. We hoped it would be 7-10 years before another procedure and that he could possibly do a non-invasive procedure in the cath lab to replace it, but it looks like we are on a shorter time frame. Due to her size (she is still sitting at 26 lbs), he feels we will be looking at another open heart surgery when it happens. Either way, I know God will take care of our miracle girl. We will take it day by day and appointment by appointment! ♥

We also had a check-up with Dr. Dixit, our Endocrinologist to monitor Avery's growth and TS. It was probably the best appointment we've ever had! Avery didn't cry at all until we got to blood work at the end of the appointment. She walked right back when they called her name, spoke to everyone, hopped on the scales, and even sat calmly letting the tech get a normal blood pressure reading! She told them all "Merry Christmas" as we went back to our room. She had a good time giving Daddy a check-up while we waited. When Dr. Dixit came in, Avery was excited to see her. Dr. D. made sure to get Avery's Christmas card out to show Avery that she got it!. She hugged and kissed her, and told her all about her Doc McStuffins doll and how she was Dr. Avery for Halloween. Avery's growth has sort of leveled out, so the doctor decided to up her HGH dosage a tad. Her weight has continually risen although she is still really small- about 25-26 pounds depending on the scale. We are waiting on the blood sample results to see if we need to adjust her thyroid medication, and hopefully everything else they check for will all come back within the normal range. Overall, Dr. Dixit was very thrilled to see Avery in such good spirits! Of course, Avery wasn't very happy about them holding her down to take a few vials of blood, but she got through it like a trooper. It seems like everything is okay in this area, so we are happy about that. We will return for our next check-up in early April.