Not Public Display of Affection

At 18 months, this little spitfire, is definitely a teeny person.  I mean we've got an active toddler on our hands.  And besides colds & allergies, we haven't had any health issues.  At Elise's 18 month check, the Doctor went through his normal routine of checking things out.  But then he took a little extra time listening to her chest....and then he had me lay her down, and he listened to her a little bit more.  That's when he told me that he could hear a heart murmur....wait, what?  We were both a little confused, because this was new, we've never heard a murmur before.

So our Doctor scheduled for Elise to have an Echocardiogram, because we were both curious as to what was happening. 

So echo day came.  James & I headed up to McKay-Dee with Elise.  Our Nurse was so friendly and caring.  McKay has Child-Life Specialists, and as we found out, her job was to entertain Elise & do anything she could to make Elise feel comfortable.  We had bubbles, toys, & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse going while we got Elise ready for her Echo.

Because of her age, Elise needed to be sedated.  We learned that Elise is quite the happy stoner.  We also learned that it takes a little bit more to put her to sleep (she got some Special K).  The echo was pretty cool, and I should have taken pictures, but I really was looking at my babe & looking at the screen.  The techs were able to get all the images quicker than the time I was told (like 25-ish minutes to the 45minutes).  I did take this picture to show Jordan, Jaxson & Madison, so they could understand what Elise went through.

It took Elise a bit to wake up, and she wasn't too happy.  I just held her, and held her head, and she eventually went back to sleep & slept for 3+hours.  We got lucky that day, a cardiologist from U of U was there & read the echo, and told us right then & there what she had & what needs to be done.

So Elise has Patent Ductus Arteriosus.  In very broad terms...Elise has an artery that flows from her heart to her lungs.  It is there in utero that helps baby "breathe", but closes after baby is born.  Elise's did not close.  It's not affecting anything right now, but her heart is working extra hard.  If this were to continue over the years, her heart would fail 30-40 years down the road.  The fix is "easy".  They will feed a catheter through her groin & plug the artery.  That's it.  The doctor said that the procedure would be done in the morning, and that Elise would go home later that day.  As long as everything goes well, the only thing that would show would be a bruise on her leg.  The doc also said that kids, after having this procedure, would have more energy...wait, what???  She's already a bundle of energy, climbing & running around everywhere!  She's going to be more rambunctious!  They also kept asking us if she's always been small-Yup!  They said that this heart issue could be possibly stunting her growth.  So it's be interesting to see if Elise starts growing more or not.

After a long nap, Elise ate a huge lunch (she hadn't been able to eat since the night before), and was so much more happy.  She was also quite the drunken sailor since the drugs were still in her system. The next morning, she was back to herself.

We are very grateful for modern technology.