Around and Around and Around

I know that we’ve laughed at what a trickster I am before, but it really is true.  In order for me to get to go home, cardiology wanted to make sure that everything about my heart and lungs were working fine.  They were a little concerned about some of my earlier test results and wanted to do another Echo to see if I had pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure, but between my lungs and my heart, not like the normal blood pressure).  So, yesterday morning I got to put on my pretty (and comfy) scrubs and I got wheeled down to the Echo lab, where Mama C and I saw Jane (who was my nurse the first time that Mama C and Mommy came for an echo with me before my first overnight visit) who came over to make sure we were all okay because she had heard about my arrest.  My nurse for yesterday was Rita, who was really kind and made sure I got weight and height checked (5.13kg and 63cm) and then she gave me some medication to make me sleepy (because it’s easier to get a clear picture if I’m sleeping) and I drifted off for a really great nap.

Mama C, on the other hand, hung out beside me until it was over.  She says that she knew something wasn’t right because the radiologist walked away and went right to the phone to call someone.  It turns out that he was calling my cardiologist because there was something a little surprising happening inside of me.  My cardiologist came downstairs right away to talk to Mama C and explained what was going on.  The heart is made up of 4 chambers: the left and right atrium and the left and right ventricles.  The blood moves between the atrium and ventricles through tiny doors that open and close when the heart beats.  It turns out that I have a blood clot that is right on the door between my right atrium and ventricle and it`s only being held in place by a little thin arm.  This is dangerous because every time the door opens and closes, it puts pressure on that thin arm and it increases the chances of the clot coming lose and moving to my lungs (that`s called a pulmonary embolism and it`s really bad).  So, they’ve loaded me up with blood thinners to decrease the work my heart has to do and the goal is that the longer the clot doesn’t move, the more likely that it won’t move – that hopefully it will calcify and stay exactly where it is.  The good(ish) news is that it`s possible that this is what caused my cardiac arrest in the first place – maybe a small piece of is got dislodged earlier – so they’ve scheduled an MRI for Tuesday, to look at my heart and my brain more closely to see if they can figure out if there was damage done earlier.  But for now, the doctor’s have hooked me back up to the heart and oxygen monitors and are constantly checking the level of blood thinners in my system so that they can keep me safe.  When my cardiologist came upstairs to explain everything to Mommy (because Mama C wasn’t sure she could explain it as well as an actual doctor) she said that while they have seen this happen before, it`s actually really rare, which mostly made the mom’s laugh because of course I`m going to develop the thing that’s rare – I do every single time!

It also means that my nurses are coming in to check on me way more often, which isn’t so bad because they all think that I`m so adorable – especially with my pigtails.  One nurse took one look at me and said that I looked like Boo from Monsters Inc and then she called me that all night long.  I’m lucky their so nice to me, because I can certainly be quite cranky – I really don’t like getting my blood pressure taken and I scream horribly when they come to do blood work.  But most of the time I try and be extra charming to make up for the times that I`m not such a great patient.