To play a school sport a Sports Physical is required. During this physical the doctor told us that she detected a heart murmur. Wait, WHAT?? Yes. The doctor even wondered why it wasn't detected sooner.
I made an appointment at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania) to have an EKG and ECHO done. CHOP is one of the top children's hospital in the area. I felt reassured knowing that we would be seeing a heart specialist from this leading hospital.
We checked in with no problem and immediately went into an exam room. The nurse took Brandon's vitals and asked a bunch of questions. After she was done she began to leave the room. Apparently she asked us to follow her. Brandon and I just sat there. The nurse had to turn around and tell us again. Brandon and I just looked at each other and giggled. We both have hearing issues and did not hear the nurse ask us to follow her. My other children tease Brandon and I that we are 'Deaf and Deafer'.
In the next exam room my stomach was in knots and my hands were sweaty while Brandon had an EKG completed. The nurse applied a bunch of sticky tabs on Brandon's chest. When taking them off, Brandon commented "Good thing I don't have chest hair." That boy has a way of finding humor during a tense moment.
Two heart specialist came into the room and spent a good deal of time listening to his heart. They gave us the good news that they could not find the presence of a heart murmur.
A clean bill of health was much of a relief! But what a scare!
I would recommend this hospital to anyone. The staff, nurses and doctors were kind, considerate, professional. We had no wait time. They went over their results quite a few times so that the information was understood. I was quite impressed.
Oh, and after all this excitement, Brandon has decided NOT to play Lacrosse!
Glad to hear all is OK. It's scary when they tell you that. I remember when the boy was little our pediatrician's partner "heard" a murmur but told us not to worry because they usually repair themselves in little ones... so next time we saw our pediatrician we asked him about it and he checked the boy over and said there was nothing. Apparently, the other pediatrician has made more than his share of parents rush off to see specialists when there was nothing wrong with the kids!
ReplyDeleteI know it did YOUR heart good to get that clean bill of health :)
ReplyDeletei am so so glad to hear brandon is okay. i love that he kept a sense of humor during the testing...it really helps, doesn't it?! sending love and prayers and so glad everything is okay! xoxo
ReplyDeletemaria
Glad to hear that he is okay but why isn't he playing lacrosse? He should play lacrosse. C'mon, Brandon. You KNOW you want to. Just do it. :-) Yeah, okay, so maybe I like lacrosse a little more than hockey.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you had problems hearing. Stefan can hear barely anything from his right ear and has constant tititus. So we have the same problem here. Deaf and deafer...that was a funny line.
So glad that there was no murmur
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