2 Month Check-ups

Sam had his 2 month check up with the pediatrician and cardiologist today.

We went to the pediatrician's first. He weighs 11lbs 3oz and is in the 25% for height, weight, and head circumference. He has been in the 25% since he was born so at least he is growing proportionately and the doctor said there is no need to be concerned. He got 4 shots and an oral vaccine. He wasn't too happy with that, and of course I had to hold him down so that was no fun for me either.

The cardiologist was second. Again, they had trouble finding a pulse oxygen reading on him. And, just like we experience on our home machine, his oxygen would read REALLY low (in the 50s) and then suddenly jump to 80. The doctor is worried that, even though Sam is not blue or breathing heavy, his oxygen may be chronically low. The danger is that this means low oxygen to his brain and body and could lead to developmental delays. He wants to run a blood test that will tell him how chronically low it has been. If it is too low, we will have to put Sam on an oxygen tank 24/7. This is troubling to me but we will do whatever we need to.

The cardiologist wants to see him for his next check up in one month. Sam will be three months old then, and the doctor thinks we will start getting ready for surgery at that visit. We will run another echocardiogram, and then schedule a heart cath in Atlanta. He and the surgeons in Atlanta will use those to determine a surgery date and also to determine exactly what will be done during surgery. The procedure they will do is an open heart surgery called the Bi-directional Glenn. We were hoping Sam would qualify for a different procedure, one that would have slightly better outcomes. But the doctor said Sam doesn't have quite the right type of defect for this to work out. We'll see...they have to do the heart cath first to know for sure.

Anyway, this first surgery will be done in Atlanta sometime between late April to early May. I was hoping to make it a little further along, but the doctor thinks its better to go ahead an do the surgery so that Sam can get higher oxygen saturation rates, which will help with his development like I stated earlier.

He okayed Sam for a trip to Mobile, and he okayed him for day care. We still have to be SUPER careful about him getting sick, so everyone get ready for me to request you wash your hands before holding him. I hate to be that way, but I also don't want to be the cause of any serious medical complication for Sam.

I'm a little stressed about having to prepare for this surgery. But we knew this day would come, and I am just happy that we were able to avoid surgery until now. I'll update when we get the results of the blood test.

~Kathy