Good News?

Hooked up to the EKG machine.

Seth went to the cardiologist this week. They just love him there because he is always happy and smiley, but mostly because he is so chunky. Most heart babies have a hard time gaining weight, but not this guy! He weighs 21 lbs now. My back is breaking.

Anyway, our appointments are pretty much the same. Weigh Seth, do some blood pressures (which take a lot longer now that he is so wiggly), do an EKG, then talk with the doctor. Well, unfortunately for us, we know a lot about the blood pressures. So when the numbers come up how they aren't supposed to, we start to get a little bit on edge. In fact, Randy starts freaking out, and at this appointment he was no different. He closed his eyes, put his head on the table, and went to sleep (or maybe he was praying). I wish now that I had taken a picture.

(Clearly an exaggeration! ~R)

Seth's blood pressure should be higher in his legs than his arms, and that was not the case at this appointment. So, the nurse always says, "Maybe the machine is acting up." Seriously, she has said that to me every time and she calls the machine Phillip because it is manufactured by Phillips. Then the doctor comes in and he listens to Seth's heart. We always talk about the slight murmur he hears because Seth has a bicuspid valve which one day he will probably have to have replaced (probably as an adult). Then the cardiologist does the blood pressures himself instead of with the machine.

This time, when he got done, he said that he was getting a different number for Seth's blood pressures. The arms were lower than the legs. Yea! I felt so much better even though they weren't more than 20 apart which is what they like. The doctor said that he felt things looked great, and Seth didn't need to come back for 6 more months.

I was feeling positive and glad that Seth is doing okay, not perfect, but good for a heart baby. Hey, we aren't heading to Primary Children's anytime soon which to me is a victory. Randy on the other hand was feeling a little bit down. He thinks the doctor just said that stuff to make us feel better. He sees it is as, things are bad, but not bad enough to do anything yet. I guess we have a classic glass is half empty or glass is half full kind of dilemma.

(Technically, all glasses are full. Some are just half full of water and half full of air. It's science, people!  ~R)

Our biggest problem is we have to come to grips with the fact that Seth's heart will never be perfect. We will always be worrying about him more than the other boys, at least with health stuff, and that is hard for us.

We just love Seth so much!