The Heart of the Matter

Andrew and I were up extra early this morning. We had to make the hour trek south so that he could get his echocardiogram. His sleep doctor wanted to be sure that his heart was ok. Obstructive Sleep Apnea can cause big heart problems, and since his apnea is severe, she wanted him checked out.

He wasn’t too happy to be up at 5:30am, but he did fall back asleep on the way down. I knew when he woke up he’d be hungry and I gave myself plenty of time to stop to grab him something to eat before the test. He sat on my lap in the parking garage eating McDonald’s hotcakes until it was time to go in.

Anytime I have every had to have some type of test done, I am usually waiting in the waiting room for a bit before they call me back. I was surprised that we barely had time to sit down and they called us back to the prep room. There, they weighed and measured him and let me finish filling out paperwork. It was less than 5 minutes and they came and took us back to the echocardiogram room.

When we first got in the room, Andrew started to cry a bit, but once he was laying down, he was ok. The technician placed three sensors on him and grabbed the ultrasound wand. She told me that the test would take about 45 minutes. That was the first time I was worried about how he would do.

Andrew is not our “sit comfortably for 45 minutes” kid. He is always on the go! I was glad I remembered to put some toys for him in the diaper bag. I didn’t need the toys right away, as he was intrigued by the ultrasound screen.

Then, as you can see in the photo above, he became fascinated by the cord to the wand. He kept grabbing it and shaking it. I tried to redirect him with toys and such, but he loves playing with cords! I’m surprised with all the movement she was able to get any type of good images, but she did.

Before she let us go, she said she was going to have the cardiologist take a look to be sure they had everything they needed. After a few minutes, she said that all looked good and we were sent home.

The biggest surprise of the day was the fact that the ordering doctor’s office called us this afternoon with the results! That has got to be a record! I have never had test results come back that fast before. We were relieved to hear that everything looks normal and the apnea did not do any kind of damage to his heart.

We’ve had so much going on, it is nice to have one worry lifted from our plate!