A Big Day for Savannah ~ First Heart Exam in AZ!

Can you see the baby? Just kidding! This is what an ECHO looks like. Not hers though, I just grabbed it off Google Images.

Today was Savannah’s first Cardiologist appointment since we moved down here to Phoenix.  That means today was our first Cardiologist appointment without Dr. Gremmels.  We miss you, Dr. Gremmels!

Other than the appointment taking two and a half hours (yes, you read me correctly!) everything went really well.  They were running way behind, and then they also ran almost every test they could on her since it was her first time at that clinic.  That added up to a lot of wait time.  A lot.  We looked at the two books I happened to throw into my purse before we left.  We looked out the window.  She stated that everyone who looked remotely male was daddy.  We sang songs.  We climbed up and down from the chairs more times then I can count.  It was not fun but we made it through.  Oh yes, and I almost forgot to mention that Savannah screamed through every part of the exam.  She screamed while getting measured, having her blood pressure taken, having an EKG, having an ECHO (ultrasound of her heart),and being listened to by the doctor.  Fun times.

The results of her exam were great!  Here is the low down in all the detail that I have.  You may not want to know all the detail, but I want to be able to remember it someday.

Our new doctor is Dr. Baron.  He is quite obviously from Australia, and has a very charming accent.  He was very nice, and I think he will do just fine as our new cardiologist.  However, now I know to make sure and schedule the first appointment of the day and not the middle of the afternoon to make sure we are not sitting there forever.  He said that Savannah’s heart is functioning perfectly.  If you just looked at her blood pressure and her EKG, you would not know she had anything wrong with her heart.  (Yay!)

He said that based on the notes from her last ECHO, he thinks her regurgitation (blood flowing back up through her mitral valve) seems to have improved since her last ECHO.  (Yay!)  He would rate her level of regurge as mild plus.  The scale is none, mild, mild plus, moderate, moderate plus, and then severe.  She was definitely severe when she had her surgery, so this is very good news.  She has mild stenosis (narrowing) of her mitral valve, which is to be expect with the stitching they did there to try and cinch it tighter.  Her atrium is slightly enlarged, but the rest of her heart is normal size.  This atrium took the brunt of the abuse from her severe regurge, so he said it was not surprising.  It might never go down all the way.  The stitch holding her small VSD (hole between her ventricles) closed looks excellent.  He said that in his opinion future surgery is not a forgone conclusion.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

Another thing he said that I liked hearing was that it was obviously on the ECHO that the surgeon did an excellent job on her heart.  That filled my heart with some peace.

We will go back in 6 months, and if her heart looks the same or better he is going to try to take her off her medication and see how she does.  She spent the entire time with him, except when he was listening to her heart, jumping off the chair next to me into my lap.  He noted that she certainly has the energy level of a healthy 18 month old. (Yay!)

So overall a lot of yays!  We are very thankful for such a great check-up.  Thanks for caring about our little girl!

18 Months and 1 Year

This August has two milestones for little Savannah and our family.  On August 11th she turned 18 months old, and this week is the one year anniversary of her open heart surgery.  A lot has changed in the last year.  Savannah has gone from this:

To this:

She is at a really fun age right now.  She is seriously so cute that sometimes my heart just aches with love.  Oh, and I constantly want to eat her up too!  She is learning so much every day, and it is fun to get to interact with her more and more as she learns to talk.  She already understands everything, and I get the sense that the things she doesn’t understand she just does a great  job pretending.

She climbs on everything, and many people have mentioned how stable she is.  I personally think that is a survival technique.  When you’ve got a little brother that thinks pushing you down as he walks by is great sport, then you learn to be pretty good on your feet.  She has just entered that stage when she wants to do EVERYTHING herself.  She fights holding my hand when crossing streets or in parking lots, and wants to walk down our concrete, open staircase by herself.  Thankfully she is also at the age that I can just pick her up when she doesn’t want to cooperate.

She loves giving her babies hugs, and driving Micah’s trucks all around making a great truck noise.  She loves it when Micah chases her and Ben and I often finish dinner with Micah and Savannah running laps around the table laughing their heads off.  Until someone gets hurt that is, which always happens.

She is absolutely addicted to TV, and wants to watch it non-stop.  I don’t allow that, but that is her first request in the morning.  Her favorites are Curious George, Olivia, and Max and Ruby.

Some of her favorite words are: Daddy, Mom (I get a little sad that she doesn’t call me Mommy or Mama very often ~ Mom seems like such a big girl thing to say), Hi, More, Yeah and Uh-uh (she never says Yes or No just Yeah and Uh-uh), bubbles, doggie (according to her all animals sound like doggies), Bye-Bye, Nigh-Night, and many more.

She is obsessed with the bathroom (the toilet really) and we have had to lock all of us out of the bathroom to keep her out.

She is stingy with kisses, but generous with hugs.

She is in love with Micah and they are starting to have moments of playing together with no crying, only laughing.  I am excited to watch that relationship grow.

Most importantly she is healthy, and we are forever thankful for that.

Since I am “that kind of mom” I totally lost the sheet that had her 18 month stats on it.  I do remember that she weighs 21.4 pounds, which put her around the 15th percentile.  I can’t remember her length, but it was in the low 30′s and she was around the 40-something percentile.  Everything is right on track for her.  Yay!

So Happy Half Birthday, Savannah and Happy One Year Anniversary too.  We are excited to celebrate many more to come.