First Trip to Meet the Doctors

Hi Everyone,
I know its been awhile. We just got back last night from Houston. We're all glad to be back home. I better suck in all the West Texas air that I can get. Looks like we'll be in Houston a little more than I expected. We got there Monday because my first appointment would be the next day at one (Tuesday). We woke a little early figuring that maybe we would beat the traffic, but to our surprise, we left at 11:30 and got there at noon. An hour early! I was actually surprised that we got there that fast. But anyways, we met with the Pediatric Cardiologist that would be taking care of us and she did another echo cardiogram. What was really funny was that this doctor knew the doctor that had done my first one in Odessa. She trained her and as a matter of fact, the next day I learned that she taught and trained most of them around this area and surrounding states. I know we're in good hands. After the echo, we sat down with her and she again confirmed the diagnosis. She did paint a clearer picture of what would happen during all the surgeries though, but same as you would find online. The only other difference was that all babies born with this are different. It turns out that straight hlhs is where the left side did not develop at all, and Isaac seems to have a partial development of the left side. Still not enough to ever work correctly, so she told us in any case they all get treated the same. She also let us know that nothing had changed, which is good and bad. It's bad of course because its still a defect and good because no other complications developed and Isaac is still a candidate for the surgeries...at least the first one. We spent a good long 2 hours or more with the cardiologist getting our questions answered. Despite her not giving us too much hope but telling us how it is, we still think we're in good hands. She answered all of our questions. During that time, Bryan was nice enough to watch Eli for us. I think Eli had fun...not sure about Bryan yet. They played video games, read books, and I don't know what else. THANKS BRYAN! So anyways, after speaking with the cardiologist we met with the nurse that will hopefully be taking care of all appointments and other questions we might have. That took another hour or so. Needless to say, we didn't get to eat lunch until 4:30 that afternoon. I'll never start off an appointment without eating. I'm glad Eli had his pop tart for Breakfast! The nurse told us that we'd probably have to come back a little later this month to meet with my OB unless she could pull some strings and have someone see me the next day. We begged her to try and get me there the next day. We went back to Bryan's apartment and the nurse called us about 8:00pm telling us to be there at 11:00 to meet with my OB. We tried going to the zoo after we ate, but they were closed by the time we got there. Eli was upset!
The next day was a little more productive. They did a sonogram to confirm that everything else with Isaac was okay. Thankfully, it is...he is growing otherwise very normally. It seems like the sonogram took longer than the echo did. Eli got to see a little of his brother. We met with the high risk doctor and he didn't meet with me very long. The nurse said that it was good he didn't because "we don't want to impress him." If we did, then there's a problem. He told us that with this kind of lesion in the heart, there wasn't too much to worry about in the obstetric view. I should be normal and them not worry too much about preterm labor. After finishing the sonogram, which we are upset about....realized we didn't receive any pictures, we met with my OB. Great doctor. He talked to us for a long time, even about nothing at all. I'm just glad that we liked him.

Finally, after that appointment, we were able to eat. Well, Eli was so stuck on going to the Zoo, he was driving us nuts with his whining. So, we thought to go ahead and go and eat there before they closed on us again. He had a lot of fun, although we were all upset because by the time we were able to get to the monkey exhibits, there were no monkeys there. Even though, my feet hurt and I felt extremely tired, I think I was a good sport....I didn't complain but I was feeling awful. We left after closing and of course I fell asleep in the car.
We got to the apartment and I rested a little longer and then we went to eat dinner. After eating dinner, we went to Bryan's parent's house. He had told us before that they never had to worry about leaving for a fireworks show on New Years or 4th of July. I was a little skeptical, but he was right. Midnight rolled around, and all the sky was lit up with fireworks. It was so pretty. People in that area must have spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. Glad it wasn't me!! So, we left back to the apartment about 1, fell asleep, woke up at about 9 and left back to Midland. Like I said, I'm glad to be home...for the moment. We're still waiting for my nurse to call and let me know when my next appointment in Houston will be. That'll be the day we temporarily move too. Moving....that's another story for a later day. This blog is a little too long.