Cardiology Visit-Overwhelming

We FINALLY had our Cardiology visit at the children's hospital. I called to make the appointment right after we got home from Korea. When I talked to the girl scheduling I told her we needed to have an echo cardiogram. She told me that I would have to bring Isabella in for an appointment and then they would schedule the echo for another day after the visit. I argued with her for a few minutes about it but she would not budge. The day before the appointment they called me back to CANCEL the appointment because Dr. Gordon Mack wanted an echo the same day as the appointment. Really, isn't that what I told the first girl when I scheduled this appointment...Whatever people lets get it together. So she rescheduled the appointment for Wednesday, November 4th. The office visit would be from 10:00-11:00 and then the echo would be from 1:30-2:30. This is all fine except that she could have solids, milk or formula until 8:30 that morning and then clear liquids until 12:00, then nothing. We are talking about a girl that EATS. She likes her meals and her bottles. She really does eat something every two hours. I was freaking out in my mind trying to figure out how we would make it through the day. I didn't tell my husband about the eating because I didn't want him to make up his mind on going based on the miserable level. He decided to go with us. Well I fed her at 8:20 and gave her a bunch of cereal and baby fruit so that it would be with her for a while. We left at 8:45 so that we could drop our boy off at preschool and still make it on time. Once we got there we met with the doctor and a medical student. They were great. They took down her medical history and then discussed with us what was going to happen. She had an EKG and then we got to leave the hospital for a short time before her echo. We went to lunch and thankfully she fell asleep so we didn't feel guilty about eating in front her. Then we got some frozen yogurt with fruit. While my husband was in buying it she woke up. He came out and put it on the armrest between us RIGHT IN HER VISION!!! She grabbed her binki and threw it with force out of her mouth. She saw that yogurt and fruit and wanted some. She started to whimper and look at us. It was awful. (The frozen yogurt and fruit was delicious though) We distracted her and went to geocache at two very close spots because it was not time to go back yet. We also stopped at the Whole Foods store and bought her some pineapple juice. She has not been exposed to juices yet and does not drink them. We tried to give her some cranberry juice about two weeks ago and she was not having that. I thought about it and decided that if I were going to have juice which would be the best to be introduced to and my conclusion was pineapple. I watered it down and put it in her bottle. She was not terribly excited about it but after a few tries and her realizing that was all that was being offered she drank a little bit of it. We went back up to the hospital for the echo cardiogram. They sedated her and started the heart ultrasound. It was quite amazing. I knew that she still had a little hole in there based on some of the measurements I saw the tech taking so I wasn't quite as surprised when we met up with the doctor a little later. Anyhow back to the echo. It went well, she slept through it all. When she was recovered we went down to the cardiology clinic again to see Dr. Mack. He is great. He told us a story about Mongolian spots and his sisters kids. He then told us that she does have a small hole, much smaller than the Korean echo showed. The Korean echo showed an 8cm hole. This one showed that the hole is only 3cm by 2 cm. He said that we should come back in 2 years for a follow up. He said that we do need to remember that if she ever does have an IV that we have to tell them to make sure there are no air bubbles in it because it would be dangerous with the hole in the heart. Also everyone told us that she is absolutely beautiful. When Dr. Mack came into the room he said everyone out at the desk was talking about how she was at the top of the cute scale. He agreed. He was so attentive to her. He said that he and his wife are considering adopting from Korea. The person doing her IV was also awesome. She asked where Isabella was from because we asked if they would hold her for the IV so that we didn't mess up the bonding process, especially right now where she is doing so well. The girl said that she to wanted to adopt and that she has been discussing it with her husband. She was so gentle and quick putting in the IV. Isabella barely fussed and calmed down immediately when I picked her up. What a small world. It is interesting the people that are put into your life.
All in all the day went well. It was stressful, emotional and overwhelming but the results are good. Thanks Heavens!
(Can you believe that I didn't take my camera?)


On a funny note.
We had to go to outpatient registration to get registered for the echo. (I work in health care and am familiar with the questions asked during registration) The girl got to the end and said, "Do you have a religious preference you would like to list?" I said, "No thank you." My husband was only half listening so he said to me, "What did she ask you?" I said, "she wanted to know if we would like to list a religious preference." He looks at the girl and at me and says, "We're Buddhist." No joke he really said it. The girl busted up laughing, hysterically. She could not finish the paperwork because she was doubled over laughing. I looked at him and said, "We are not Buddhist." I looked at the girl and again said, "We are not Buddhist. If any one of us here is Buddhist it's this little girl and she is not practicing..."
Now don't get me wrong I am not against Buddhism. I actually like most of the teachings and I told my husband that I wanted to investigate Buddhism seeing that it is one of the more common religions in Korea but he has decided that investigate and shove down throat have the same meaning.