a big scare

 

While this is Joshie's blog all about his heart, Sammy has earned some air time on the heart blog.  You see Sammy turned 7 months this week, but it was overshadowed by some serious craziness.  On Monday morning Sam woke up feeling sick. I mean really sick...high fever, vomiting, sleepiness, only wanting to be held by me - even while sleeping, did I mention the horrible cough??? It was pretty bad. Monday was a holiday so our doctor's office was closed.  It was bad enough that I decided to take him into the urgent care clinic. At the clinic he was seen by a resident who didn't feel good about sending us home until the doctor took a second look at him.  Immediately the doctor said "This is obviously an RSV baby...check his sats." His sats were 96 - not alarming, but upon listening to his lungs she decided that he needed a chest x-ray.  This is where the story takes a turn for the worse.  After the chest x-ray results came in, both the doctor and the resident walked in with looks of pity.  They looked at me and said "Well, the good news is the lungs look clear...but it appears his heart is enlarged."
Say what???? They said that it may just be the position Sam was sitting when they took the x-ray.  I didn't panic, but asked if it was realistic to think it was just his position, or if the reality is that his heart is enlarged.  The response was "anything is possible."  The doctor said she called the pediatric radiologist to take a look at the x-ray. She told me that she'd call me later in the evening & let me know what he thought.
Then they swabbed Sam's nose to test for RSV because we were there to figure out what was currently the matter.  After the swab we were on our way home.
As soon as I called Jon I started crying because saying the words "Sam has an enlarged heart" made it seem terrifyingly real.  I called my family & Molly did her best to reassure me it'd be ok. Poor Molly always seems field the phone calls when I'm at my lowest point (she must love that). She convinced me to call Dr. Rivera. I called him, he had just gotten home from skiing, but was happy to look into it (he had access to the x-ray from home), and then call me back later.  In the mean time the doctor who saw Sam earlier called to check on us. She said that the radiologist took a look at the x-ray and felt that his heart was indeed enlarged. Moments later Dr. Rivera called me back & disagreed. He told me to bring Sam in first thing the next morning for an echo just to be sure. 
The next morning Dr. Rivera met us at his office, as soon as the doors opened - on his day off no less.   As he watched the echo he knew right away that the heart wasn't enlarged - phew!
He & the echo tech looked around a bit more at the heart. Then Dr. Rivera told me that Sam actually has a hole in his heart, but it's relatively small. Not a huge scare, but will require follow up echos.  It is an ASD- a hole between the upper two chambers.  Never in a million years did I expect to go through any of this with Sam when I brought him into urgent care on Monday. It was quite the roller coaster. Have I mentioned how much I hate roller coasters? 
Well you'd think that was enough for Sam to go through...no, no there's more. They confirmed he has RSV, which has been a horrible experience, fever, cough, miserable. AND he has a stomach virus, which has caused diarrhea & non-stop vomit (today is day 4). AND he has an ear infection, pain, sadness, more fever.

Okay, lets go over this again....just to be sure you got all of that:
1. RSV
2. Stomach virus
3. Ear infection
4. A hole in the heart (talk about adding insult to injury)

You could say this has been a long week. And it's been an awfully long weekend for Abby who hasn't been to school all week because she's also sick.  So if you happen to see us any time soon....run the other way!  Because I wouldn't wish this upon anyone.
But on the bright side, the weather is beautiful! I'm clinging to that right now, clinging.