Cardiology & ENT

On Monday, Connor had his cardiology checkup. His cardiologist, Dr. Michael de Moor from Tufts Medical Center travels to Chelmsford, MA on Monday's which is great for us. Connor had appointments with him every other Monday for the first 4 months of his life and then monthly for a while after his heart surgery. Everyone in the office is very friendly and we spent so much time there in the early months that it almost feels like we are going back to visit old friends. Dr. de Moor is the doctor who read the fetal echo when I was still pregnant and diagnosed Connor's complete AV Canal defect. He was there when I was still pregnant monitoring Connor's heart condition, and was called in as soon as Connor was born. Going to the cardiologist brings back all the memories and feelings from the first few months and of course I am always nervous they will find a problem, but at the same time, it is nice to see everyone again and nice for them to see how great Connor is doing!

As always, the first part of the visit is an EKG. As you can imagine, this is tough to do on a constantly moving toddler. I am not sure what they did in the days before iphones, because playing the Itsy Bitsy Spider App was the only way to get Connor to sit still for the few seconds needed to maintain his blood pressure and complete the EKG. Next was the height and weight check. The nurses were amazed at how big Connor is now because it was such a struggle for him to gain weight in the beginning. Now he has no problem with it! When we are finally in a room, the Nurse Practitioner comes in to go over any changes in medical history and briefly listen to his heart and lungs. Unfortunatly, Connor's favorite person at the Cardiologist was out on Maternity Leave so we had someone new. She was very nice and just as thorough, but we were sad to miss MaryEllen. Everyone kept saying that she would be sad that she missed Connor. The Nurse Practitioner we saw said that Connor would have to have an echo done because of the mild regurgitation that was seen last February. She asked how he was during an echo and if we would need to wait to do a sedated one. Fortunately, it had been a year since he had one, but that also meant that I really wasn't sure how he would do. My prediction was that it would not go well since he doesn't even like to be on his back for a diaper change, but I did not want him to go under sedation again. The doctor came in next and reviewed Connor's medical history. He listened to his heart and said that an echo was not necessary this year because he did not hear a murmer!!  That was definitely fantastic news =)  Connor is cleared for another year.

We continued on with our day and headed into Boston to Tufts Medical Center. We have had so many doctor's appointments lately that it has been tough to fit them all in. Connor had a bad ear infection just over 3 weeks ago and had some blood draining from his right ear.  The pediatrician put him on oral antibiotics, but after we saw the blood and called the ENT they said it could be the tube being pushed out from the infection since the tubes had been in for almost a year. They prescribed antibiotic drops and said they had to check his ears in 2-3 weeks to make sure the tubes were not blocked. His right ear tube is actually fine and still doing what it is supposed to do! However, the left ear tube had falled out. It was still hanging out in there and the doctor said that it would eventually work itself out over the next few months, but he wanted to try to get it out if possible. He used these very long scissor/tweezer things that went inside Connor's ear and was able to remove the tiny green tube. I would have never let anyone near the inside of my ear with those things!!!

Only Connor is this happy at the ENT's

After removing the tube, the doctor looked in his ear one more time and said that the hole had closed up which was great, there is no infection and no fluid. So, now we wait for 2 months and watch for infection and see how the fluid is to determine if another set of ear tubes will be needed.