Follow-up at Primary Children's

Yesterday Seth had his follow-up check-up at Primary Children's. As the nurse fumbled with the blood pressure cuff and came up with a drastically different reading in Seth's arm and leg, we almost had heart attacks! She got things adjusted correctly, though, and he was perfect.

They took an x-ray and he was perfect, too. Finally, they hooked him up to an EKG. It took a little longer to get this one done, especially since he had the hiccups and kept interrupting the test with a big old bounce on the monitor for each "hic". The pulses in his feet were strong, too.

Seth was awesome for the EKG despite his hiccups.

Finally, they took the steri-strips off his incision, and it is healing very well. In fact, the scar is almost covered by a baby-fat roll.

You can barely see the scar.

Last week, we also took Seth to our pediatrician. We asked him about coarctation and he said he was quite familiar with it. In fact, he said, he'd lost 2 patients to it. I almost thought he was kidding, but he said that it is very often fatal in serious cases like Seth's. We felt even luckier when he explained that most babies go home looking healthy and happy, but then that little vessel closes off and they immediately take a turn for the worst. They can be gone within 24 hours.

That's why we believe our little Seth is a miracle. If we hadn't stayed in the hospital an extra day for the c-section. . . if we hadn't sent him to the nursery the night he was struggling. . . if an astute nurse hadn't taken his blood pressure. . . if she hadn't immediately contacted the cardiologist. . . we don't believe Seth would be with us right now.

Thank heaven for miracles!