Pulmonology appointment today

Today was our appointment with the pulmonologist. I have to brag on how good my little girl was. Normally she cries through the measuring process but not today. She was a total angel. She weighed in at 21 pounds 13 ounces, which is up 13 ounces in 2 months. Not too big of a gain but it's a gain so I'm taking it. :) Her height was 33 inches, which is up 1.1 cm in 2 months.

Then the resident doctor came in to get a history....normally I don't mind when I have to talk to them but today was just irritating. I understand everyone needs to learn but sometimes I just wish they would read the patient history before assuming what was done/or wasn't done. This was our conversation:


Resident: So when is she having heart surgery?
Me: She had surgery when she was 6 months old.
Resident: So she's done? (seriously I thought it was only non medical people who asked this.)
Me: No...she will need a pulmonary valve in the future.
Resident: So when will that be?
Me: Not sure. Cardiologists don't give you a timeline.
Resident: So she had like a shunt put in? (her exact words)
Me: This is where I explain she had the full repair but she needed me to go in further details to explain everything they did to her pulmonary valve. Guess for curiosity sake.
Resident: Just looked at me with this "WOW" look on her face.

Not sure if she gave me that look because of everything I knew or if it's because I'm just a heart mom and she's the freakin resident and I had to explain everything when all she needed to do was take a few minutes to review the chart. Sorry it just really irritated me today.

So after our brief conversation she did her physical exam on Arianna and I was so proud of my little girl. She did everything the doctor asked, including opening her mouth which she never does.

The pulmonologist comes in and he was so sweet and pleasant to her. He picks her up and puts her on the table and starts his exam. The entire time she is all smiles and lets him do whatever he wants to her which including making her lay down and she normally cries when they do that. The resident kept saying she's amazed that shes only 23 months old cause she is so well behaved. Yup...that's my little girl. YEAH RIGHT...only for them. LOL!

So the doctor said she sounds good but wanted to get a chest x-ray to compare to the previous 2 films which had some changes on them. Since Arianna is healthy at the moment (crossing my fingers it stays that way) I took her immediately to the other clinic for x-rays. The doctor should be calling me next week with the results.

We are to follow up with him in 3 months, earlier if she gets sick. He is a little concerned about the fact that her August cold caused her sats to drop in the 80's and be put on O2 at night. He really doesn't want to see what a winter cold will be like for her so he told us to be cautious and not take her anywhere populated like the mall, stores, etcs. They did check her O2 sats when we were there and she was satting at 96% which is what I've been getting at home.

I did ask about taking her up to the mountains and possibly on an airplane (not sure if we can even afford it, but in June is the Mended Little Hearts convention in Florida and I really want Robert and Arianna to come with me). He said we can take her for a trial run up the mountain but we have to bring the pulse ox and oxygen. He just stop at the first rest stop and check her sats, if she's good then we can go to the next one, so and so forth. If she can hold her own at 7,000 feet then she is good to go on a plane. He said if she does require oxygen at that level it's okay cause we could always arrange for oxygen on the plane. (Kathy your the first person I thought of when he said this.) He also suggested maybe taking a train ride to Florida but I'm not so sure about that. He did say even though her sats may be borderline at a higher elevation while resting we have to take into consideration that physical activity will make it worse.

As for me....I've just been busy studying. I'm hoping to take my final in two weeks. I'll be so happy to have this course over with and look forward to working as a medical transcriptionist starting next year!