Echo at LPCH

We arrived a little early on December 19 for Caden's echo, so we decided to take the kids to the park for a few minutes to let them run around for a bit since they had been sitting in the car for the past hour and a half. We were glad we did this because we ended up having a very long appointment.

We checked in at Admitting and then went to the Children's Heart Center. We didn't have to wait too long before they called Caden back for his echo. We started with an echo tech who we remembered from Caden's days in the CVICU. She spent quite awhile getting various views of his heart and checking different things. 

Then, after about 45 minutes a cardiologist came in and took over. He went back over some of the things she had already done and talked to her about what she had seen. Shortly after he took over with the echo, another cardiologist came in and the three of them discussed what they saw going on. They all seemed to be in agreement that it didn't appear that Caden actually had a sinus venosus ASD. This was very interesting since up until this point, it really seemed like he did according to the last echo from August. But they did want more clarification to be sure.

Caden started getting very restless and began complaining about them pushing into the area just below the ribs as they tried to get a better angle and clearer pictures. He ended up crying so we took a 10-minute break. In the meantime, the doctors decided to do some more imaging in another room on a machine with different capabilities. So after he was done crying we went into the room across the hall.

By the end, they really felt like he did not have an ASD but they still felt like they needed more imaging in order to make final diagnosis. And, they said it looked like his pulmonary vein was entering into the atrial wall in several places. Don't ask me how that works but that is why they wanted to do more studies. As we were leaving, they called Teimour Nasirov to discuss it with him and decide whether they wanted to do a CT Scan or an MRI. This was interesting because this was the first time a CT had been suggested. But I guess there are different benefits depending on which way they go.

The plan is for them to discuss the case amongst themselves and determine which route to go. They will schedule Caden for one or the other on Friday, the 21^st and they will let us know what they decide.

The entire echo lasted about an hour and 45 minutes! Poor Caden did really well despite how long it took. He did have a crying spell, but he got over it and let them do some more imaging. I am so proud of him and how well he coped with the situation. And, he got to take home 5 “prizes” out of the treasure chest: 3 rubber ducks in different colors, a yellow monster truck and a big, soft teddy bear. I would say he made out like a bandit!

The whole experience of being back at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford was a little surreal. It brought back a lot of memories from Caden's two months in the hospital. As we were leaving after the echo, we took a couple pictures of the boys in front of the hospital. So strange to be back! I hope we don't have to make a habit of it though...