Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Surprise.... It's An Echo!

There's nothing like returning home and discovering that Clare's echo is now only three days away instead of four weeks.

Due to the fact that Clare's cardiologist is unexpectedly going to be out of the office for December and January (and Clare had an echo scheduled for December 18), she did not want Clare to wait until February to echo her. While we were away, the office rescheduled Clare's echo to today. The suddenness of it made me nervous for some reason. Why didn't the doctor want to wait until February? After realizing that it had already been over two months since Clare's last cath, I started to feel those familiar butterflies flitting around in my stomach.

I am happy to say that the echo was fairly good news. (With Clare, there never is a truly good echo unfortunately.) Her narrowings are only slightly worse, her valve is still only slightly leaking, and her pressure gradients remain about the same (as far as the doctor could tell because she didn't actually get a good study on that particular number at this echo). All in all, Clare continues to be clinically stable and does not need another cath right now. Her blood pressures are creeping up, though. One of the benefits of being a defibrillator salesman is that Shawn has blood pressure machines in our house. So we take Clare's blood pressure often (which then naturally extends to taking Jamie's, since he begs and begs). Lately, her numbers have been high. Today, in the doctor's office, her top number was 130. And that's on blood pressure meds! Clare's cardiologist is still concerned that there may be some narrowing in her renal arteries, but she does not want to risk sedating Clare to obtain a MRI of those arteries. She increased Clare's dose of blood pressure medication (since Clare seems to be going through a growth spurt - we've hit 22 pounds!). We're going to take her blood pressure twice a week until we see the doctor again in early March. If her pressures do not decrease with the new dose, then Clare will have to undergo a MRI.

6 comments:

Kerry said...

22 pounds!! Holy cow ~ one day we'll get there :) I'm glad you heard good news. Neuro wants Brady to have an MRI "just to see" in January... ugh

Julie said...

I am glad you got good news. I am still waiting for Noah to break 20 lbs. It is hard to believe he is almost 2 and has only gained 10 lbs since he was born.

Penny said...

I'm glad everything went pretty well. I sure hope you get the |BP under control.

22 pounds? That's great!

Nancy said...

I'm so glad the study went well. Congratulations on Clare's weight!

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!

Noel said...

I am so jealous that you hav eyour own BP machines! I learned how to take Abi's manually but second guess myself all the time!! I take her's at least 3 times a day, and I take the other kid's BP too( I have a bigger cuff for them. Abi's BP is hitting 125 plus again so I totally understadn the worry...

Glad that there is no huge news from the echo. I hope that this new dose of medication helps with BP.

Noel

Lisa said...

wow 22 that is awesome!!! I am glad the echo showed not much change..that is what ours showed and I 'll take it any day....I love that Dr.Mervis was so impressed with Clare she is a doll it is so tough when they have tantrums because of communicating...I think Emma still does that sometimes:) Thinking of you always!!! XOXO