Doctor Appointments

Dean had his appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist this week. He had an EKG and an Echocardiogram. The purpose of the appointment was to see if Dean’s heart chambers were enlarging and see if his heartbeat was normal or too fast. The worry was that his heart was pumping more blood faster due to some of it shortcutting the circulatory system by going from the heart to the lung mass and back to the heart. This would cause his heart to beat faster than it should and, since it’s a muscle, it would grow larger than it should for his age.


I’m happy to report that the EKG and Echocardiogram showed there was no enlargement of his heart and he has a fairly normal heart rate for his age. There is a slight murmur but we had been told about that before because it’s due to his condition. Once the mass is removed or disappears, that murmur should go away. The appointment went well. Thanks to Grandma Esther, we got there on time and had enough hands to hold, feed and change babies. Here are a few pictures from our appointment.

Grandma Esther and Dean

Dean hooked up for his EKG

Mom holding Dean’s arms down and attempting to calm him with a bottle during the Echo.

Dad holding Dean after the Echo. We had to keep his clothes off so the doctor could listen to his heart. Dean doesn’t like to be sans clothes unless it’s warm, and it was not warm in there!

The next day, I had my follow-up appointment with my OB/GYN. We had promised to take the boys this time so she (and the office girls) could see them. Plus, we never got a photo with her in the hospital. We had planned on taking one in the delivery room, but that all changed with the complications. So we took the camera and snapped this photo.

Left to right: Mom holding Dean, Dr. Lori Carrillo and Dad holding Daniel

We absolutely LOVE Dr. Carrillo! If you live in the Phoenix area and need an OB/GYN recommendation, let me know and I’ll pass along her info.

In other news… I decided to take some pictures and video clips of our tummy and back time on the floor. The boys don’t always love it, but on this particular day they did pretty good. Appreciating tummy time takes time, so we keep plugging away at it. I had promised to post the video clips here, but they're not uploading, for some reason.  I'm going to have to figure it out and post them later.  That's all for now.