Echocardiogram 5/4/09

Once again, we were at Children's Hospital this week as Cara had an echocardiogram scheduled for Monday morning. The reason for the ECG is two-fold:
-Her geneticist wanted it done as part of the genetic testing they are doing in an attempt to properly determine the case of Cara's hydrocephalus as well as the appearance of her cafe-au-lait spots. Apparently, many genetic conditions have cardiac issues attached to them. Ruling out cardiac concerns helps them to narrow down the list of possible conditions.
-Her pediatrician heard a slight heart murmur during Cara's annual exam last month and is anxiously awaiting the results of the ECG to see if it's anything more to be concerned about other than a murmur, which many people live with, unaffected.

We arrived and were quickly shown to a room outfitted with an ultrasound machine. The Disney Channel was playing on a TV, which provided a good initial distraction for Cara. However, once she realized that she was going to have to lay still for a long time, reinforcements were necessary, in the form of lollipops. After that, she laid very still while the technician took 80+ images of her heart from various angles. An hour later, we were done. I am really pleased with how well Cara did, without even an oral sedative.

Copies of the cardiologist's report will be sent to genetics and our pediatrician and we should receive a call or letter from genetics by next week. It only take 1-2 days for them to get the images and report but then for them to call us or notify us could take a few more days. The patient coordinator did say to call genetics next week if we haven't heard anything from them.

I do not think that there could be anything major going on or we would've either been kept after the ECG to speak with a cardiologist or genetics would have contacted us by now. So, I'm breathing a little bit easier than I did going in, but won't completely take a deep breath until we get the "all clear" from genetics. The ECG is the last step in the initial series of testing that the genetics clinic wanted to do...these tests ruling out the most significant conditions. So far, everything has come back normal (the Noonan's test, the NF1 test and the gene array). We will continue to thank our lucky stars and pray that the ECG also comes back normal.