our visit to cardiology- sorry no pictures

(sorry the formatting got all messed up on this, hopefully its still readable...)

As many of you know, Jonah was born with a heart murmur. Its not something that requires surgery (at this point) but its not something innocent, like Elora has. Therefore, we are supposed to go have it checked on every so often at the children's hospital, which for us is about an hour and a half away.

The last time we went, Jonah was just two months old and was able to hold still great, but this time they wanted him to be sedated for the echo! When they’d originally said he needed to be sedated, I was a little worried about it, having heard horror stories about childrens’ reactions to sedatives, not to mention that Elora didn’t have to be sedated in the Seattle Children's Center when she had a heart echo at one year old. Plus, it’s a non-invasive procedure, so the only reason they do it is so he’ll hold still ...I felt it was totally unnecessary.

I even went so far as to call and enquire about it. I felt like an overprotective parent, but the nurse on the phone noted on our file that I had refused sedation- though I didn't exactly say that-, and the plan was for me to just nurse him beforehand. Of course, weeks later when they called to confirm his appointment, they were acting like the sedation was going to happen, telling us about not feeding him beforehand and asking about his reactions to medication. I held my tongue and decided we’d just go ahead and let them do it, and I hoped that I wouldn’t regret it later!

We were told to arrive around 7:15, but left our house a little late and didn’t get there till just after 7:30AM. The nurse said something about us being there by seven, so I guess we were even later than I thought, but it wasn’t our fault!

Surprisingly, Jonah was in a great mood when we arrived, talking to himself and smiling, and he continued in this vein when we went into the first room for them to start his check up. He hadn’t eaten since about nine the night before, but he was doing good! He didn’t like it when they put the sticky sensors on his torso, but was fine when I picked him up again.

Then the nurse started explaining the composition of the sedation compound he would receive, saying it was made of three different parts. The first compound was a relaxant and an amnesiac, so that he would calm down and not remember anything when he woke up later. She told me this like it was a big favor to help him forget the trauma, but if they didn’t have to give it in the first place, it wouldn’t be so scary! She said it might make him giggly and silly.

The second drug, I think, was supposed to start knocking him out. And the third was to “stun” him, so even if he was awake, he wouldn’t move around much. She added that some kids needed a little help with some oxygen while they were under, because their lungs were a little too slowed and didn’t move enough. Wow, I usually like being educated about what’s happening, but this was making me much more worried than before.

I was also surprised to learn that this mixture would be delivered intravenously, rather than with some kind of gas as I had assumed. Great. This freaked Joseph out of course. As she was leaving she told us that they had some of the best people coming in to get his IV in, so he was in good hands. So a male and a female nurse came in for that; they turned off the lights and shined a light under his wrist so they could see his veins through his skin. I was assisting in holding him still, while Joseph tried to keep Elora and Josh out of the way.

For being some of the best in the hospital, they didn’t do a very good job! They stuck the needle into the top of his hand, and proceeded to spend at least two full minutes or more moving the needle around inside his skin, trying to get it into the vein, while I held his other arm and legs out of the way. They finally gave up on that one and stuck a second needle in another vein, again spending thirty seconds to a minute moving it around and trying to get it to stick.

Soon they moved on to a third needle! And I noticed that they forgot to take the second one out first, and it was moving around while they tried to get the third one in. At least this time, they stopped after a few seconds. But then they switched him around to try on his other hand- it only took two tries.

Yeah. So at this point he had five little holes in his hands, and he was hysterical. Luckily, Joseph was too preoccupied trying to keep the other two out from underfoot (they were being particularly naughty that day) so he didn’t know what they were doing to the baby, or he’d have been crying too! I’m not the type to get all upset when my kids get immunizations, but I definitely felt bad each time Jonah looked up into my face from that exam table. I guess he has my veins- the same thing happens to me whenever I’ve had to get an IV.

When I was able to hold him again he calmed right down, and started gnawing on the wraps covering each of his bruised hands. Joseph had to take the two older kids to the waiting room because kids weren’t allowed in the next room, while I went with them to where the echo was to be performed.

They let him stay on my lap as they injected each of the drugs one by one. After the first one, he started talking a lot and playing with the wires all hooked to his front. After the second, he was making a complaintive whiny noise, and they told me that a lot of kids don’t like that second one because it makes their bodies feel strange. When they started the third injection, I shifted him so he was laying back in my arms more. He turned like he wanted to nurse, and even opened his mouth, but within seconds his eyes started moving back and forth then finally rolled back and he held still- with his lids still half open. It was a little scary, but not too bad.

After that, I went in to watch the other two so Joseph could go sit with Jonah for a bit. Josh was having fun playing with toys, while Elora was playing an easy racing video game that Joseph started for her on the little TV there. At one point, a man and his son came and were sitting in the kid chairs near us. He commented on how remarkable it was that Elora could play a video game at such a young age, and so I assumed they were sitting there to watch the game, and I went back to the book I was reading. It wasn’t until several minutes later that the man inquired about the owners of the jackets that were covering all the remaining chairs, and I realized that Joseph had deposited all of our stuff there, making it so no one else could sit down!

I apologized and quickly moved all of our things out of the way, only then noticing that there were people in another part of the room (the room was curved) also standing, because there was nowhere for them to sit. And they were probably all annoyed at me.

I went back in and switched with Joseph again at the end of the exam. Jonah was starting to stir, moving a little every few minutes. The nurse mentioned that if he moved too much they’d have to give him more even though they were almost done, so I was praying he wouldn’t wake up too soon!

Thankfully he wasn’t given any more tranquilizers, and they transferred him to a rolling bed to move him to a recovery area, where the whole family was allowed again. We followed along behind the bed, while Jonah laughed and cooed, and a nurse remarked that this was an unusual response after waking up!

I was able to feed him while they monitored his breathing, and everyone else got popsicles and slushies…mine got spilled on the floor :(. He seemed to be doing fine, and we were moved to the actual exam room where we’d talk to the doctor. We had to wait a while of course, while Josh and Elora fought over the toy car that was in the room (one of those big ones you can ride in). A nurse was kind enough to give them tokens for the toy machine they had there, which kept them occupied for a short while.

Jonah was perfectly happy and content. The doctor finally came and said his heart was doing even better than the last time we were there, and that we didn’t need to come for another year. Yeah, that’s pretty much the whole visit with the actual doctor.

They warned us that we needed to watch Jonah for the next 24 hours and make sure he was breathing okay and everything. They were very specific about his having to keep his head up in his car seat so that his airways weren’t blocked. They made it sound all scary, but he was fine and alert, and he didn’t even sleep all the way home.