Echocardiogram 11/16

Love when I get to post good news!!  And with the eye surgery coming up in three days, I'm hoping this is just the beginning of LOTS of great news.  Yesterday we took Ryan in for his echo at CHOC.  The cardiologist wanted to see if it was ok for him to be off the sildenafil and just follow up since we haven't had an appointment with them since discharge.  Ryan was such a trooper.  They had to do an extra long echo since it was his first time in the new office and they want to get a baseline for his whole heart.  I kept asking the tech questions, but as nice as she was, she was a stickler for the rules that the doctors don't want the techs to share too much info.  Mostly I wanted her to show me the septum because they always tell me that the bowed septum is the reason why they say he has the PPHN even though they can't read the pressures.  She did point it out to me when she caught an image of it, but of course it doesn't mean a whole lot to my untrained eye.  I was able to get a little bit of info out of her, though.  She said it didn't look like anything to raise an eyebrow at, which I took as great news! 

We were lucky because the same cardiologist who met with me in the NICU a few weeks ago was in the office and said he would come by to read the echo for us right away so we wouldn't have to wait.  He came in after about 30 minutes of images, and after speaking to the tech he said, "It looks good."  I won't put an exclamation mark there even though to ME that seems exclamatory-worthy, but he's a pretty stoic doc, so that was the way he said it.  "Looks good."  More on that later.

We asked about the med and whether or not he needs to be on the sildenafil still, and the doctor felt like he should stick with it a little longer.  Especially with the surgery coming up, it's just a good safety net for him.  So luckily, we were able to walk over to the CHOC pharmacy and pick that up before heading home.  We also ran into some old hospital friends, which is always nice :)  Crazy that when you're in there that long, you can't go back without bumping into at least a handful of familiar faces.

So, back to the doctor's comment.  Once he stepped out, I really needed to know what "It looks good" meant.  I asked the tech if "good" means things look normal, and she said yes.  So I guess it's safe to say that the PPHN is gone, but MAN I wish these people would get as excited as I feel!  I'd think after all this time worrying about this, they'd be SO excited to tell me it's finally GONE!  But all I get is, "It looks good."  Normal.  Whatever, I'll take it!

We're going to try to enjoy this weekend and maybe even get out of the house for a quick outdoor, non-crowded outing, because Monday will start the week of craziness.  Monday Ryan has a pediatrician check-up with flu booster shot at 8:30am, then we drive up to CHLA for an anesthesia consult, then we're hoping to make it back down here in time for Dani's Thanksgiving Feast at her preschool.  Then Tuesday is the eye surgery.  They reserved us the first slot of the day, and it's still unclear as to whether or not they are going to have him spend the night for monitoring.  I guess we'll just see how things go.  We are so thankful for all of your prayers and positive thoughts.  Your support means so much to our family.