Cardio Appointment

Sam had his cardiologist appointment today. It has been two months, and we had a lot of questions that needed answering. Chris took him to the appointment. He said he was mostly good for everyone and cooperated with the EKG and such. Here are the results of the appointment:

1. Sam's heart sounds good, his lungs are clear, his oxygen saturation is within expected limits, and all in all he is doing remarkably well.

2. Sam's cough, which has lasted since his surgery in March, may truly be a result of his blood pressure medicine (which he started after his surgery). Dr. Cardis said that the medicine is really just 'sprinkles on the ice cream' when it comes to pediatric cardiac meds....as in you don't really need it necessarily. SO he took us off of the medicine to see if the cough stops. GREAT news for us...I hate giving him adult medicine.

3. Sam has been cleared for circumcision. Barbaric, I know, but it actually reduces infection risk in the long run and the fewer infections kids with chronic illnesses have, the better. We will have to go to Atlanta to see a specialist because of Sam's heart, but Dr. Cardis agreed it was time to go ahead and start that process. We had to hold off originally because they didn't want it too close to his first heart surgery as it is an infection risk while healing.

4. Sam's next heart surgery could be pushed back until he is 10! Dr. Cardis says Sam is doing so good and staying so stable that we will hold off as long as possible. Of course, we will play everything by ear and just take one day at a time. But Dr. Cardis's theory is that the longer we wait, the more time we give Sam to live. Once the next surgery is completed, 'the clock starts ticking' to when Sam goes into heart failure and needs a transplant. The down side to this is that we are adding more years to the amount of time that Sam's body (especially his brain) is exposed to low blood oxygen levels. I did some research and there are studies that show kids with heart conditions have increased risk of ADHD and similar learning disabilities, but there are some that show there is no correlation. Only time will tell. I would rather have Sam alive longer than have him be a genius.

5. Vacations officially just be came more complicated. We were planning a vacation to California in December. While there, we were planning on staying at my Grandmother's house in the mountains (approx. 6000 feet elevation). Dr. Cardis said all of that is fine...HOWEVER we would have to have supplemental oxygen. He said the airline will provide oxygen for the plane, but while in the upper elevation we would need to bring oxygen with us. UGH. Sam HATES the nasal cannula thing and the thought of dragging around oxygen tanks freaks me out. We will do whatever it takes though, because we really want to go and I don't want to keep Sam from experiencing things because of this condition. But I have to explain that this makes me incredibly sad about future vacations. My best memories as a kid were camping in Colorado, Utah, and California, usually at REALLY high elevations. I wanted to share that with Chris and Sam. Now it looks like we will have to avoid these places all together. On top of that, how do you recharge portable oxygen units in a campground?!? Chris didn't get really specific with Dr. Cardis, and there is potential that these restrictions are just until he gets through his next surgery. But still, I am really sad about the thought of not sharing the best parts of my childhood with Sam during his childhood.

All in all the appointment went well, and we are happy with Sam's progress and health. In other news, we joined a few heart groups, including a program run through the Egleston Hospital Cardiac Services team. Through them we were asked to send a photo for a casting call! Everyone keep their fingers crossed...Sam might be part of a PSA commercial for congenital heart defects to be filmed soon! I got an email back from the film people who said he was a 'cutie' and they would be contacting us as soon as they had details!

~Kathy