Blessed By D: Cardiologist and Thanksgiving

I just reviewed my last post that told you all about Neurology and Endocrinology... uh, sorry about that ;/. For some reason I gave you the VERY long explanation... Today won't make you so tired, so you're welcome in advanced :). Sorry I haven't written about this sooner... every time I have a free minute to write the kids take over and want to watch a cartoon (when I'm pumping in the morning).

So, we went to the Cardiologist the other day and Dominic got an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram (this is embarrassing but I honestly thought those were the same thing). The first is where they hook up lots of leads on your chest (see picture below), the second is where they take a 20 minute sonogram of your heart. Anyway, long story short, he still has two holes in his heart. The first is a ASD/PFO (atrial septal defect or patent formen ovale) and is no big deal. Everyone has a hole in their heart between the top two chambers (the atria) when they are in utero called a PFO whose purpose is to bypass the lungs and shunt the oxygenated blood the momma provides out to the developing body quicker (since babies don't use their lungs to breathe before they're born). Normally this hole closes up at birth but the Doc said about 1 in 4 adults still have this little hole and are basically asymptomatic. He said there are hypothetical risks with activities such as scuba diving but this hole doesn't concern him at all.

The second hole is called a VSD (ventricular septal defect) and is a small home between the two bottom ventricles. This is a very common type of congenital heart defect and most of the time is no big deal. Luckily the septum, which divides the two bottom chambers, continues to grow as the baby grows so this will normally close up on its own. The Cardiologist said he expects this hole to be closed in about 6 months. Woo Hoo!

See, that wasn't as bad as last time, huh!?!? OK, now onto the fun stuff.. Dom enjoyed his first Thanksgiving! We were going to stay home but since Mike worked we would just be here by ourselves, so I decided to bring him over to my brothers and we just stayed in a back room. People would peek their head in to say hi and members of my family would come in to visit. It was really nice going out for something other than a doctors appointment! I am getting used to getting everything gathered up and out the door. It is still alot, but I've done it so much now it's not as overwhelming as it was. Here are a few pics to make you ooohhhhh and ahhhhh :)