Annual cardiology appointment

Today was Bilal's cardiology appointment. Such a blessing that it went so well. He was more anxious than he usually is, probably because he understood more in some ways, but didn't know what to expect in others. He reluctantly stood on the scales, but we did manage to get a weight. He was 30 pounds, so he hasn't gained any weight at all in the past 4 months, but that's OK; he had gained so rapidly in the few months before that, it was inevitably going to slow down. I think it coincides with stopping his Pediasure and switching him to low fat milk as everyone else at home drinks. I suppose we could switch him to whole milk for more calories if we needed to.

Bilal loving the trucks in the waiting area

Anyway, since he fussed some with his height and weight the nurse didn't attempt an EKG, but the cardiologist was OK with that. The most important thing is that he sat through the exam and echo with Dr. Colvin, without any protest at all. He managed to hear his heart and lungs and said everything sounded great. Bilal sat through the echo in my arms as usual, but Dr. C got a great view of everything, and told us that there were no significant changes since last year. Most of all, the right ventricle is not enlarged despite the leaky pulmonary valve. The size of the ventricle is one of the factors that determines when or if Bilal would need a valve replacement, so that was great news. He anticipates starting treadmill stress tests around the time Bilal is in Junior High, so nothing for a while. He did again suggest 18-24 month visits, and I again suggested 12 months (which Dr. C is fine with), but I might get brave and see if we can go 18 months between visits this time. Ask me next July!

With Dr. Colvin

I left the visit much more relaxed and reassured than this time last year. This had been one thing weighing on my mind a bit lately, even though deep down I believed that Bilal was doing fine. You can see how healthy and happy he is, my little wild man!

I posted this on Bilal's carepage too today.

Now one more thing to accomplish this week (my Boards), and then it's vacation time! As far as I know our beach house doesn't have internet access, so we'll be taking our mobile access with us. I don't know how much blogging I'll get done there, but I sure plan to do a lot of relaxing!! And it will be nice to read for pleasure instead of cramming; I'm picking out a selection of books to take with me.