Mermaid's EKG/Echo

Sweet hair day for Mermaid! ;)

Mermaid had her EKG and echocardiogram on the same day as LL (Lizard Loaf). It's destiny. The MD felt confident telling me that his preliminary viewing of 80 something pictures of her heart indicated no defects. The total number of photos topped 130+ by the time we left and they'll be comped over before the official report is filed, but I'm feeling pretty good about that diagnosis. =)

Fortunately, I had a girlfriend explain what to expect and how to prepare. I want to be that girlfriend for you, in case any of you are going through this for the first time. Step one: plan to be at the hospital for a while. I packed a couple of Clif bars for me and a bottle for Mermaid. The EKG wasn't a big deal. Mermaid did have to strip down to her diaper and it took a couple of minutes to put special stickers all over her and hook up the electric leads, but the actual test only took a couple of minutes max. then they removed all of the stickers, though some residue remained on Mermaid's belly. I asked the technician how the results looked and she just said she wasn't a physician and couldn't discuss it with me. That left me nervous. I learned they really just can't tell you. It's not allowed.

Then we waited to be called for the echocardiogram. I had heard this would take about an hour once they started. In our case it was 2 technicians and 2 doctors and 1 hour 45 minutes. Mermaid finished her bottle and I had to down a Clif bar while they were changing technicians. Technically, no food was allowed. What's a nursing mom to do? I had left my home three hours earlier! It's important that the child hold very still especially during the echo, so being asleep or having a bottle to drink for that 1-2 hour process is so helpful. The last thing you want to do is be sent home and have to reschedule because your baby wasn't cooperating. Also, baby must be bare chested so it might be nice for baby to wear a button up or just take baby's top off and keep baby comfy in a blanket until it's your turn. Maybe baby will even fall asleep and you wouldn't want to have to wake them up by taking their clothes off for the echo. Now, the technicians could certainly help the process by warming the ultra sound gel. Mermaid was actually pretty good and took her sweet time with the bottle, but towards the end got really bored with being calm and wanted to play with the cables stuck to her shoulder. The technician was working right under her neck, so Mermaid went to work sucking on the technician's hands.

It was amazing watching her little heart pump so steadily. I could clearly see all of the chambers working. Then the technician would flip a switch to help her see blood flowing in and out and it came in three different colors: blue, red, yellow. It was like fireworks exploding in Mermaid's chest. When the doctor came in to tell me there were no defects, I felt like there were fireworks exploding in my chest too! Woo Hoo!