Fantastic news from Julia’s 3-year heart check-up – All the areas of concern from her first visit have healed with her growth and are no longer there!

The visit involved an echo of her heart along with the visit with the doctor. Julia was a good sport and enjoyed hanging with Mama and Daddy by herself. The ultrasound went smoothly because they showed Cat and the Hat during the procedure.

We rewarded her good behavior with a strawberry milkshake after the exam. For Mama and Daddy it was a celebration of the good news, too. Emily enjoyed the whole exam at a friends house, to her own delight.

Emily had gone to bed with a cough and I wondered if she would be able to go to Thursday school the next morning. Sure enough she was up in the night with a fever. So, this morning, I asked Julia if she wanted to go to school by herself or stay with Mommy. Using her usual method of communicating–head nodding–she choose to go to school alone. The theme of the day was Teddy bears and they were to bring one in with them. Julia selected Minnie Mouse. There was no changing her mind either. Minnie went with her to school. I thought it would be fun to remember her day of independence with a photo of herself with Minnie. She was very brave about going alone up to the point when we went down the hall to her class. I left her in tears to find out later that she quit them quickly.

Emily and I had a fun couple of hours of just hanging out together alone. While it wasn’t the most fun list of activities, we enjoyed just being with each other. Emily visited the doctor to have her cough checked on. She asked to take her doll with her to the doctor’s office, so that she could be like her sister and take a stuffed friend with her. Emily was a big brave girl at the appointment. She had a breathing treatment administered while we were there and I thought she would like to see what she looked like with the fish mask on. She didn’t like the noise of the machine, but didn’t seem to mind the mask. Hopefully with a little rest she will be feeling back to normal very soon.

Emily measured at this appointment 41-1/2 inches tall and 32.8 lbs weight

We took Julia to see a pediatric heart doctor today to have a heart murmur reviewed. Overall the visit went well, we liked the doctor and felt that he covered her condition well for us. Julia was a good sport for all of the poking.

She has an ‘innocent’ heart murmur. This just means that it is not a significant murmur. I will be generic in the description to try to keep from being boring. There are two aspects of her heart that are not functioning normally. One problem is the vessel that takes blood from her heart to her lungs has not grown enough to handle the volume of blood. He said that this condition is common in little ones and should fix itself in the next six months.

The second problem is referred to as a PFO, which is an incomplete closure of a valve between the left and right atria. This valve is open during the fetal development to direct blood away from the non-functioning lungs. After birth, this valve closes and redirects the blood to the now functioning lungs. In 20 percent of the population this valve is not completely closed. The bottom line for Julia is that it is not going to cause any problems now and we will have her looked at again at age 3. At that point they will be able to see better how her heart is growing and how this closure has developed. It can close, it can grow to a point where the pressure of blood in her heart holds it closed, or it can be a hole between the sections of the heart. It sounds like the long term effects to Julia will be a concern for blood clots.

We will pray that in three years when she is examined again that she will be given a clean bill of health!