Another Visit With The Cardiologist And The ENT Dr.

Nothing too exciting to report at these visits today, which is good news.  She had a checkup first with the cardiologist.  We took her because she has been a little fussy and gets more tired with feeding.  The Dr. said she is stable and doesn't see any new issues, in fact one of her concerns had been with what is called the pressure gradient of her pulmonary valve.  This basically has to do with the amount of obstruction or narrowing of the pulmonary valve, the higher degree of obstruction the harder the right ventricle has to work to get blood out to the lungs.  Anyways, the number last time was around 115, this time it was 105, which is still high, but the cardiologist said it is nothing to worry about, it is typical of babies with tetralogy of fallot.  She hasn't gained any weight, she was 13lb 5oz.  The nurse had weighed her twice and I told her I didn't think it was right because it said she was 16 lbs and that would mean she gained like 2 &1/2 lbs in 1 week, but she insisted that that was what it was.  Needless to say, the Dr. had her get weighed again.  Her o2 sats were down from 90 last time to 84, but for her it is still good. 

After her cardiology appt, we went to see the ear, nose, and throat Dr., but he really only checks her ears.  So the plan is to talk to the surgeon who will do the surgery on her heart and see if he is ok with letting the ENT put tubes in her ears the same time as her heart surgery to prevent her from having anesthesia twice.  We will also see if they can do her hearing test then which also will require her to be sedated.  She initially failed the test for her left ear, but they are unsure if that is due to the fluid in her ear or not.  Hopefully the surgeon won't have a problem with this.  The placement of the tubes and the hearing test together should only take about 30 min.

So the only conclusion we came to was that her irritability could be due to teething and/or congestion.  Other than this, she still smiles. laughs, talks and is happy most of the time.  Kate on the other hand.....