15 Month Check-up

Last Friday, I took Cole in for his 15 month check-up. It was supposed to be a normal well visit with a few vaccines and his annual flu shot. But when his doctor was listening to his heart, she heard something she was not comfortable with and wanted him to get an EKG. She told me that a normal heartbeat sounded like bum bump, bum bump, but Cole's had a long pause that could be an arrhythmia. She also said the way it sounded was normal in adults (when we take deep breaths) but it is not usually heard in children because they breathe at a faster rate, but Cole was super calm and still while she was listening, so she may have been able to hear it that day. (I am hoping she was just able to hear it.)

I didn't ask any questions. I just said okay. I wish I asked more questions.

Then, I told her about my big ultrasound while I was pregnant, where they look at all the organs and make sure they are all developing properly, and that my OBGYN saw something in one of his chambers. At the time, my doctor said it could be nothing that she has seen it before or it could be early sign of down syndrome or something else. There was no way to know before Cole was born unless invasive tests were performed and all that would have done was simply let us know ahead of time. We didn't do the tests and I do not remember having another ultrasound to see if it was gone later in my pregnancy. After hearing that, Cole's doctor wanted him to have an x-ray too.

So after we finished the well visit, we were sent to the imaging center for the x-ray and the hospital for the EKG.

Since all this was on Friday, we hoped we would be called on the weekend, but we were not and had to wait through the weekend. It was tough. I called like 4 times on Saturday morning.

Cole's doctor called this morning, but I missed her call. On her message, she said that the x ray came back normal but there was an abnormality found on the EKG, so she was referring us to a pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children's Hospital. Again, she said it could be nothing, because if Cole moved too much during the test, it could give a misreading, so I am hoping for that. She would like him to get a special ultrasound of his heart next to rule anything being wrong out.

So now, we are waiting again. His EKG was sent to Texas Children's and they will read the results, evaluate it, and get back with me to make an appointment in 3-5 business days.

**Update**The doctor just called me back. She said the EKG must be read by a pediatric cardiologist because they are read completely different then how adult tests are read. With kids, they also get more false positive because of too much movement. At this point, she is not too worried but does want Cole to see the specialist and have Echo-cardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart) preformed at TX Children's. The EKG did not show an arrhythmia, but it did show that his heart may be enlarged on the right side making it have to work harder to pump the blood through it.** (Update from original post.)

Please pray that absolutely nothing is wrong with Cole's heart. Pray for any healing that needs to be done. Pray for any doctors or nurses that see him for wisdom and discernment of how to treat him. Pray that Cole would cooperate for any testing so that we would get accurate results that are clear for the doctors to read. Pray for peace as we wait and patience as we wait.

We will keep you posted. Thank you for all your prayers.