Heart Check-up

First, notice this lovely bruise/black eye. He ran into the corner of the coffee table a few days ago. First it was a bump and a bloody scab. The scab fell off in the bath the other night. Then the bruise grew and that whole temple is ugly yellow. I couldn't get him to close his eye, but there's a bluish black bruise there. Plus, two skinned knees and two skinned elbows and a tiny cut on his lip... all boy.


Smile. And when he sees pictures of himself smiling, he smiles the same way and shows me.


This game is Rush Hour Jr. Buddy loves it. Baby X just likes playing with the little cars. Today he put all the cars away on the board (one was missing, so two empty squares) and he'd come to me because he'd have a bus (three squares) leftover, and only spots for a two square vehicle and I'd help rearrange. He did this a few times, then finally he got them all on and came running proudly to show me he'd done it. A game that makes even the littlest of us think.

Baby X is 2 years, 3 months and 5 days old today and and he went in for his (now yearly) heart check-up with a brand new cardiologist here in Virginia.* He last went in Kansas in June 2009.

First, the kid did great. I've been dreading him going in for these check-ups when he's two, three and four because he won't quite understand what's going on, and I worried he wouldn't hold still for them. Last year, as an 18 month old, he kept pulling all the EKG wires off of him, but was still pretty good. This time, he was silent but would look at me every once in awhile like, "are you sure this is all okay?" Or a couple times he quietly said, "[Baby X's] all done." But I explained he needed to lay down a little longer so she could get more pictures of his heart and he said, "oh" and held still. It helped that this office let him watch 101 Dalmatians. In Kansas Sponge Bob was always on, and my older kids barely know who Sponge Bob is, so it wasn't very entertaining for Baby X.

His new cardiologist had her student come in and listen to his heart. She said his chest wall is thin and makes it very clear to hear the murmur in his heart so he's great for students to practice on. She asked Baby X if it would be okay for her student to come listen to his heart too and he said, "yes."
The doctor said that he is doing great. Whatever the rating they give his heart's blood flow has actually improved (either from 17 to 22, or 22 to 17... whichever of those is better) since last June, meaning, the corrections they made to his valve with his balloon valvuloplasty have kept growing as he has. She rated it at mild. (His doctor in Kansas continually rated it as mild to moderate... critical before the procedure.)

More for my own memory:
The doctor said with his heart, he is much more susceptible to infection and the blood would pump right to his brain so to be aware of that. Until 1997, they used to require kids like him to have antibiotics before going to the dentist, etc. She said just to be aware of fevers that seem to be without cause and to take him to his pediatrician and remind the doctor of his condition, and they'd perform a blood test to check his blood. A patient of hers got a bunch of bug bites on her leg and scratched them and they got infected and led to a fever, etc.

*He weighed in at 28.4 lbs. and 35 1/2 inches tall. (I'm guessing because I didn't think to write it down at the time.) This is about a pound heavier than his two year old check-up in January (which is understandable since all he wants to eat these days is rolls), but an inch and a half shorter. I think his January height check is more accurate. Today it seemed like he was taller than she was measuring.