Tommy had his three-year-old well check. It was the first appointment where he didn’t seem terrified of the doctor and spend most of the exam crying (and screaming was usually involved in the past as well).
His exam went well. He is 37.5 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds. His height put him in the 40th percentile and his weight at the 60th. I believe that is the first time any of my children have been above 50% in their weight – ever! The little tub! Actually, he looks absolutely perfect to me!
I realized the appointment was taking a different turn when the doctor listened to Tommy’s heart for a lot longer than usual. Tommy was sitting very still and quiet, but the stethoscope spent a lot of time on his chest. When he finally stopped listening, I asked the doctor what was up. He thought it was funny that I noticed. He heard something different. He described it as a split heart-beat. Instead of bump-bump-bump-bump, Tommy’s heart was going bump-b-bump-bump-b-bump.
The doctor said it could be nothing. It could be something as simple as his breathing causing it, but it could be as serious as a weakened valve. Since this was the first visit Tommy was quiet enough for something like this to be heard, he couldn’t be sure, so, as a precaution, he had us schedule an appointment with a cardiologist at Primary Children’s Medical Center.
A couple of weeks later, Tommy and I made the trip to PCMC. He was scheduled to have an EKG, an echocardiogram, and then visit with the cardiologist. He and I were at the hospital for about 4 hours between the tests and the waiting and eating lunch in the cafeteria. Thankfully, the hospital is all about kids, so there was plenty to walk around and see and the waiting room was so fun, Tommy didn’t really want to leave it!
The ECHO took about 45 minutes and Tommy had to lay very still on a table while the tech ran an ultrasound of his heart. Tommy was great! He held my hand, watched “CARS,” and was very patient.
The EKG was more fun because he got lots and lots of stickers on his belly. Tommy was very proud of his belly stickers.
He didn’t want the stickers taken off, but they had to come off. He had the residual black marks for a couple of weeks though – that was good enough for him to brag about!
After the tests were done and the results analyzed, we met with a very nice cardiologist. He told us Tommy’s heart look normal and healthy. No split heart-beat. No murmur. Just a normal healthy 3 year old heart.
That was good to hear. I was too busy with our move to spend any time worrying about Tommy’s heart, so I hadn’t. It was just really nice to know that I still had nothing to worry about. I’m glad our doctor wanted us to get it checked out though. Otherwise, now that life has calmed down a bit, the worry might have sunk in and the unknowing would have been so much worse. Way worse than the hefty medical bill we just got for all these test! Peace of mind is priceless.