Little Guy went to his pediatric cardiologist for his yearly check up today. When he was a newborn, my paranoia was that he wouldn't cooperate. His very first echocardiogram ever, when he was 3 weeks old, had to be delayed because he was hungry and I had to feed him, it was all very uncomfortable and stressful for me. Plus, in Kansas, there were appointments that took 3 hours with waiting and all they have to do. Here, the appointments are still pretty long (we arrived half an hour early to an 11AM appointment today and didn't leave until 12:30, but were busy most of that time). As he's gotten older, my concern has been getting a toddler to lay still for long periods of time while they attach all the stickers and wires for his EKG and for a really long time while they do the echo. Today was the same doctor he saw last year, but at a new office. And this office was playing
Finding Nemo and had a giant fish tank, complete with Nemo and Dory. Little Guy loved it.
They started off weighing him and measuring how tall he is. She even told it to me in inches and pounds instead of the metric measurements, and I forgot. I *think* he was 33 lbs. and 40.5 inches. He was hesitant to step on the scale but finally did.
Then a nurse had him take his shirt off. He asked us before the appointment if he'd have to take all his clothes off and if the doctor would give him a shot. This is the first time he didn't have to strip down to a diaper, he got to keep his shorts on. The nurse attached all the stickers and wires for his EKG. The hardest part was convincing him to lay down on the paper covered exam table. He did NOT like this. Once all the stickers and wires are properly attached, it only takes 10 seconds for a reading.
Then into a new room (sports themed) to wait. After 5-10 minutes the echo lady came and got us and took us to her exam room. She put on Sesame Street (a huge improvement from SpongeBob, which is usually what we get stuck watching, and who Little Guy is clueless about and not interested in). Again, he freaked out about laying down, even though this exam table has a pillow. This is basically like an ultrasound when you are pregnant. She puts a little pit of gel on and then runs the little (I told him it was a camera) all over his chest, neck and tummy getting good pictures of his heart. This takes 20-30 minutes (I don't know exactly). About halfway through it he relaxed a little and started talking to me more about Sesame Street and what the echo lady was doing. I told him he could look on her computer and see the pictures she was taking of his heart, and he glanced at it but that was all. After the echo he was rewarded with a ball and a lollipop. And off to a new room (animal themed) where we waited to talk to to doctor. This wait was maybe 15-20 minutes.
The doctor came and listened to his heart. Again he didn't want to lay down on the table, although when I asked him to pose for a picture on my camera phone when there was no doctor in the room, he wanted to lay down on the table and I told him he could stay sitting up. She listened to his heart and had him take big breaths. Then she talked to me. She said everything is the same as last time. There is still a slight leak which is common after a balloon valvuloplasty. She said kids with leaks like this have to be careful with weight lifting types of sports and heavy contact sports (ie: football), but to still expose him to a variety of sports. She made it sound like to test his bodies ability to cope and also so he's got a variety of sports he's tried in case later on he's limited to what he can actually do. So, don't just introduce him to baseball, because maybe it will be outlawed later. Introduce him to baseball and swimming and soccer and golf, etc. She asked him if he wanted to play T-ball. He told her (me) "[Buddy] plays T-ball." She told me that he's probably going to stay steady like he has been until he's an adolescent. And even then he may steady out even more to where she'll only have to see him every two years. She asked him if he'd come back and see her in a year. And she told him she'll never give him a shot, she doesn't even have the stuff to give shots anywhere in her office. Then she gave him a stack of stickers.
When we got back to the car and I was buckling him in his car seat he said, "that was fun. And scary. The fish tank was fun."
