Cardio update

I took Emma to the cardiologist this afternoon. I arrived just after 1 for a 1:15 appointment and didn't get back to the car until 3:15! And they didn't even do an echo! YIKES!!

Emma's weight was 29lbs 15 oz! She's right near 30 lbs and looks nice and healthy in that aspect :) She is 37" tall now too. Compared to a year ago that's 13lbs and 5" more. Yay:)

Unfortunately, Emma's BP was off the charts. They took it at the beginning with a 140 on there. Then they took it near the end when she was a lot calmer and it was 133... Then we took it 3 minutes later while she was midway through a bottle... 114/63? So her BP is at least spiking up WAY too high. The cardio wants to see it under 110, but 114 is okish and the 140 is just unbelievable. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any BP's under 130 in about 6 months when we go to the dr's. We are hopeful that it's just that she's uncomfortable at the dr's offices, but obviously even completely calm her BP is still higher than we want to see. She's already on BP meds so we upped it .5ml/day (split between two doses) and we'll go back in July for a very thorough echo.

Emma's last appt was in December and they did a quick echo with the dr in the room just of the area she wanted to peek in to get a good idea of pulmonary pressures and leakage. The next echo we'll have done in her main office instead of the 'satellite' we were at since they have a better echo machine there.

My understanding is that the pulmonary pressures are still high, but they are decreasing and the 'right heart sounds' are very low, almost as if they're also going away. We won't count on that (but it would be wonderful!) and will still do complete follow up... but it is good news anyway.

So, instead of taking her off the BP meds (the plan the last 2 visits...) we're instead upping them. Not so hot, but in the great scheme of things I'm still happy to have that be the only issue we left with! Three months and then her good thorough exam. Today's was 2 hours with no echo-- any guesses on the length of the next exam?? (30 min, right????? :) )