We arrived at the office early, so Adalyn had plenty of time to impress the other patients. One particularly friendly Grandma fussed over her the entire time we waited. Soon enough though, we were called to the back to begin the echocardiogram - an ultrasound of her heart.
She layed on the table perfectly still and quiet for the entire procedure. The technician took video of her heart from every angle then weighed and measured her. She weighed in at 22.1 lbs and measured 32.5 inches tall. (This was the first time she was measured standing up!) Then we waited for the doctor. We played on the doctor's stool, we played on the exam table, and we played with Dad's phone.
When the doctor came in she took a thorough past medical history for Adalyn, as well as a family history for both parents, and a history of present illness. She focused for awhile on the fact that we've had one doctor's visit each week since the week before Christmas, and there hasn't been a span of more than 10 days in a row since then that Adalyn has been well. We talked about Adalyn's sleeping habits and the fact that she slept 18 or so hours out of 24 a few weeks ago. She then went on to discuss the results of of the ECG. She observed no fluid around the heart, no structural damage or abnormalities, and no functional concerns. For these reasons, she has deemed Adalyn's murmur innocent - a functional murmur that just happens to occur because of the particular way Adalyn's heart beats. What she did see on the ultrasound was a very slight leak in the aortic valve, completely unrelated to the murmur. It's so slight that she's not concerned, but it's present enough that she's not yet willing to completely rule out aortic insufficiency. Because she doesn't want to peg a presumably healthy child with a diagnosis that will follow her the rest of her life, she's going to wait and see what happens with it and take another look in a year or so. She said the aortic valve is functioning normally and she doesn't observe any structural abnormalities.
I was very impressed with Dr. Walker. She interacted with Adalyn so well, but also explained everything to us in a way that didn't seem too dumbed down. I appreciated that she explained things somewhat medically. She had nothing but praise for Adalyn and even went so far as to tell us that she "made her ovaries hurt." Apparently that totally appalled Adam because as soon as we made it to the car he asked me what the heck she meant by that. Adalyn must have liked her too because as the doctor headed out the door, Adalyn insisted on giving her a hug.
We both breathed a sigh of relief after the appointment. Even though we knew the chances that something was wrong were slim, it felt good knowing for sure that everything is fine with our little Toots.
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