Monday, August 15, 2011

Cardiology Visit and more poop

Wow. I can't believe it's been a year since I last posted here. My how time flies! Much has happened in the last year. The big deal is that I bought a house and we moved about 2 miles from where we were before. The other big deal is that Gabby starts kindergarten this fall. And we still have a few medical issues to contend with, but nothing nearly as tough as what we've been through.

Today we had her first heart check in a year. She's been pretty stable from that standpoint, which is why I haven't written anything about it in so long. Going a year between cardiology visits has been nice. But recently I've noticed that she's been more tired in the evening, or she's complained more of fatigue after we've been walking some. Of course I mentioned this to Dr. Lewin today. Her echocardiogram doesn't show any alarming changes at this point. Blood flow velocity through the stent in the artery going to her left lung looks good. Her right ventricle is working fine right now. Her murmur is the same. He understandably doesn't want to do anything invasive or expose her to any additional radiation unless it is absolutely necessary. So here's the bottom line: we go back in 6 to 9 months instead of a year. We'll see how tired she gets going to full day kindergarten and whether or not she adapts well to it and go from there. She'll still need that stent dealt with at some point down the line, and at some point she'll need a pulmonary valve placed. And cardiology visits will be a part of her life for as long as she lives, which should be a good long time.

Then there's the ever-present issue of Gabby's poop or lack thereof. So I did take her to the special clinic last year. Due to insurance issues, I didn't take her back for some while. Unfortunately, I backed too far off of her poop medicine, and she never got potty trained. When we had the x-ray done for that clinic visit, it turned out that she was impacted, and I didn't even know it. So, with their guidance, I started giving her lots of different stuff to get her to go and get her cleaned out. Our last visit showed that there is still some impaction left, but there's less there than there was before. That added even more poop medicine to our daily regime. The really good thing here is that since we've upped the meds, she has started to poop on the potty! Woo hoo! She sits to pee, and she poops at the same time. I don't think she's had poop in her Pull-Up for awhile now, which is really good. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

I promise, next entry will be more about life and the new house and such.