Cardiology appointment at Primary Children's
We went to Primary's December 11th. They checked his weight, oxygen levels, and did an EKG. We also met with genetics and Dr Pinto. The weeks leading up to appointment I get so anxious and nervous that the appointment wont go well. Driving by Primary's when there is snow on the ground is enough to make me turn the car around because it brings back memories of last January when William had surgery. It went really well though and I can breath for another 6 months :) Dr. Pinto was very impressed with his weight and commented over and over about how much energy he has. William's oxygen levels at home have gone up to between 79-83 but at the appointment he was SATing 87! I told her that was awesome but that was not what he has consistently been at at home. She was pleased to see that they are slowly on the up and up. I asked her why William has so much energy when his oxygen levels aren't as high as they could be. She said that William only knows being in the 70-80's and his body adjusts. If we were to be that low we would definitely notice our energy being low because we are usually 100 but William doesn't know because he hasn't been 100 since he was 1 month old.
I also asked questions about his next surgery and when she thought it might be or if there was an age that mostly likely he wouldn't be able to keep his oxygen levels up anymore because of growth or what not. She said that there is no age but she would think probably before he becomes school age. It really all depends on how he does. They wont do anything voluntarily so once his SAT levels drop below 75 and don't recover they will put him on oxygen and plan for surgery within the next couple months. They know that keeping oxygen on a toddler is not easy so sooner rather than later. I also confirmed that Dr. Burch will be the one to do his next surgery as he knows William's anatomy best having done his last surgery.
We also met with genetics to see if heart defects run in our family. We knew William's heart defect was rare and not hereditary but my brother was born with an ASD and I have other family members with heart murmurs so we wanted to know if our future kids would have more of chance. They said that everyone has a 1% chance of having a child with a heart defect and now that we had one, our chances of having another one goes up to 2%-3%. So very little still. But don't worry it will be a little while before the next little one comes our way. :)
Overall it was a great appointment. We love our cardiologist Dr. Pinto. They sent us home with a telemetry monitor again to monitor his heart rhythm over the next 24 hours. The monitor is to make sure he isn't in need of a pace maker yet.
Pediatrician Appointment
William went to the pediatrician on December 13. We love our pediatrician too. Dr. Wilcox was very impressed with how he is growing and developing. He mentioned that if one of his partners were to come in and watch William they wouldn't believe all of what William has gone through. He was very impressed with his energy and development. We feel the same way and know William has been very blessed to do so well.
Dr Wilcox also had some good suggestions on how to get William enough nutrition. He suggested green smoothies/ fruit smoothies, Carnation breakfast drinks, yogurt, and continuing to offer him fruits and vegetable even if he doesn't want them. We did have luck with vanilla yogurt this month and the carnation breakfast drinks but William wont touch fruits/vegs so we will keep trying.
