12.18.2009

wren <3's echocardiograms....

i apologize for not knowing the technical terms in this post... hope you'll forgive me. i wanted to talk a little bit about wren's echo she had the other day.
it was a little scary. one of the qualifiers for continuing to wean her off the oxygen is the condition of her heart. the pulmonologist explained that when the lungs are damaged, as hers are, that it causes the heart to work extra hard to oxygenate the blood. (this is where i would normally insert the term here _________________) anyway, they had to check her heart and make sure it wasn't overly muscled up.. that it was pretty relaxed and doing it's thing without overworking.

the procedure was relatively painless and cry-free. i think the only thing that bothered her was the goo, and that was just a little at first. she actually fell asleep! the tech said that she was the best little baby he'd ever seen! (of course, i knew that.) i wish against wish that i had had my phone to take a picture... but in true charla form, i forgot it at home, and didn't have time to go back for it.
it was a little bittersweet seeing that fuzzy black and white image on the screen. ultrasounds were always a time of high emotion... the anticipation, the fear, the anxiety, the joy, the love... and now, to see my little bird's heart up there... with so much riding on the health of that one muscle... it was hard. i almost teared up a little. (subtly, so as not to let the tech see me.) needless to say, i was itching for the results... and i got them: her heart is FINE! whew! mark another one off the list: things we have to worry about. they also told me that her accessory vessel must have closed since they didn't see it in the echo.
so, we're one step closer to getting off this stupid oxygen. bring on our january 27 appointment!

1 comment:

Chelsea said...

That's awesome Charla! Luke had to have an echo and it was very scary for us... I am glad to hear she is doing so well! :)