Strider Cardio update - no news is good news!
Yesterday was Strider's yearly Cardiology appointment (EKG and Echocardiogram), and it marked another year of holding our breath to see what the outcome would be. Such is the heart parent life....you never fully relax. We have now been blessed with 5 years of "no news is good news". In other words, there are no changes to report. The heart function is good, the leaky valve is still leaky (but no more than usual). The fenestration is still open, but it's small, and his O2 sats (oxygen saturation) are at 97%. That's a good number for most heart kids, so we'll take it. Brad inquired about closing the fenestration (since it never closed on its own) to improve his O2 sats even more, but the Cardiologist feels that he is doing really well, and it is not worth putting him through a cath (catherization) procedure. I completely agree, because I know full well that caths comes with their own risks. The doc also said that as he gets older, and his heart grows, the hole could get even smaller on its own.
While we were waiting in the waiting room, Strider does what he normally does whenever we go somewhere….he makes friends. He's a sweet kid, and he always waves, says "hi", and goes up to any boy that is remotely close to his age. He then leads with questions about whether they like Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite. If they say "yes" to liking or playing any video game, he then settles in to "talk shop", and show them videos on his tablet. After we got called back, the nurse was taking his vitals and asking Strider some simple questions about himself. That's all it takes. Once you get him talking about himself, his considerable conversational skills kick in, and he'll talk your ear off about everything. I think we made the nurse's day, because she was quite highly amused about some of the stuff he was saying.
The Cardiologist wants him to wear a holter monitor for one day of normal activity, so we'll do that in a couple of weeks. A holter monitor is basically a portable EKG. It's one thing to do an EKG for 10 minutes, lying on your back in an exam room....and quite another to do an EKG for a 24-hour period while going about your normal activity. It will give the doc a better idea of how his heart is actually doing, and make sure there is no abnormal heartbeats and such.
That's pretty much all the heart news to report for now. He's doing well (knock on wood), so hopefully that will continue. In a related note.....February (next month) is Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) month, with particular emphasis on Feb 7-14th for CHD Awareness. While we may be fortunate with no issues to date, there are so many heart kids that have not been so lucky. There are still so many potentially new parents who don't even know about CHDs. We still need to educate and support the heart families. Medical research for CHDs is crucial. Spread the word, volunteer, and support where you can. Thank you!
While we were waiting in the waiting room, Strider does what he normally does whenever we go somewhere….he makes friends. He's a sweet kid, and he always waves, says "hi", and goes up to any boy that is remotely close to his age. He then leads with questions about whether they like Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite. If they say "yes" to liking or playing any video game, he then settles in to "talk shop", and show them videos on his tablet. After we got called back, the nurse was taking his vitals and asking Strider some simple questions about himself. That's all it takes. Once you get him talking about himself, his considerable conversational skills kick in, and he'll talk your ear off about everything. I think we made the nurse's day, because she was quite highly amused about some of the stuff he was saying.
The Cardiologist wants him to wear a holter monitor for one day of normal activity, so we'll do that in a couple of weeks. A holter monitor is basically a portable EKG. It's one thing to do an EKG for 10 minutes, lying on your back in an exam room....and quite another to do an EKG for a 24-hour period while going about your normal activity. It will give the doc a better idea of how his heart is actually doing, and make sure there is no abnormal heartbeats and such.
That's pretty much all the heart news to report for now. He's doing well (knock on wood), so hopefully that will continue. In a related note.....February (next month) is Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) month, with particular emphasis on Feb 7-14th for CHD Awareness. While we may be fortunate with no issues to date, there are so many heart kids that have not been so lucky. There are still so many potentially new parents who don't even know about CHDs. We still need to educate and support the heart families. Medical research for CHDs is crucial. Spread the word, volunteer, and support where you can. Thank you!
Amazing blog filled with fun, memories, and important facts...
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