So its been kind of a rough month or so, things are looking up on the teenage issues we are dealing with.. I'm seeing some light at the end of the tunnel on that front.. BUT we had a big cardiology appt last Friday that I nearly lost my lunch over..
let me go back... so Georgia requires kids to get a physical from a GA doc. before they enter school (or at least with in the first 30 days of enrolling). We did this and thought it would be a good time to piggy back sports physicals for the boys since both would need them for Football in the Fall. the Doc cleared the boys for school but said she would really feel more comfortable if the boys got a clean bill of Heart Health from a cardiologist since they had never been evaluated after Lane's HLHS (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome) diagnosis etc. I kind of thought it was a bit excessive BUT really felt fine about it because we are in the south and I have heard of instant cardiac death on the football field etc.. I honestly felt everything would turn out fine but agreed to the appt..
As the appt got closer I have to admit my anxiety level rose, on the day of the appt I had nervous stomach and was very antsy.. both boys got EKG's and Echo Cardiograms.. Hunter's blood pressure was slightly elevated but when they had him lay down it was fine (he tends to run high at dr's office and has had "white coat hypertension" in the past) anyway I was in the room for both Echo's and I do kind of remember thinking the heart beats sounded so different but pushed it to the back of my mind..
the Cardiologist come in (it was just 2 tech's that did the prelim tests etc) and said Hunter has a perfect heart but "we've got some issues with Brad's heart"... at that moment the blood started to drain out of my face and I kind of heard a ringing sound in my ears.. I was shocked and scared and wasn't prepared at all for what the dr said next..
He explained Brad has a Bicuspid Aortic Valve (see picture above).. and it does leak a bit (evidently that is pretty much the norm for a Bicuspid Aortic Valve) he explained that he will have no limitations ie: he can play all sports etc... he'll have to take a baby aspirin every morning for the rest of his life and take anti-biotics before seeing the dentist (even for cleanings) if he had seen Brad since a little guy he would be seen by him every 2yrs but since he's just seeing him now he will have a baseline exercise (treadmill) stress test done in a couple of weeks and see him in a year if nothing has changed then he can go to every 2 yrs etc. so all in all if anything HAD to be wrong this is probably what we would want but still I think I aged 20 yrs just in that short office visit... he also said this IS RELATED to Lane's condition.. it is a "Left Heart Issue" and although no genetic link has been officially found the doc said you can not ignore these happened in 2 siblings (the other weird, we always felt Lane really favored Brad in the way he was built/looked as a baby etc).. so now we are going to get KayLea a Echo, she got checked out at around age 3 but only with an EKG and a Chest Xray and at age 3 it might not have had any issue on an EKG... (Brad's was found on the Echo)...
so thats what we've been up to.. I think i've had enough!!! what do you think??
ta ta

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