Happy Dance

It feels so great to walk out of the doctor's office smiling and feeling pretty darn great. Yesterday was that day. None of Camden's appointments are really bad, but they are nothing to get super excited over either. He had his usual cardiology follow up with an echo. I have made it known before that I get pretty anxious before these appointments. It's the get sick to your stomach kind of feeling. I think it will always be this way until that dang hole closes up. It started off with the weight check like always. You are not going to believe this, but the boy has gained a whole pound in the last 2 weeks! This is big time news for us! I did my little dance with a huge grin on my face. He now weighs 15 lbs 8 oz. I didn't think we were ever going to get to that 15 pound mark, but we did it. I'm going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for this one. I have been working really hard the last couple of weeks to up his milk intake and get more calories into him while trying to keep his reflux at bay. Apparently I'm finally doing something right. Yep...I'm proud of myself. Oh yea, I'm proud of Camden too! 

Then it was time for the echo. I'm always praying inside my head that Dr. C is going to tell me that the hole is getting smaller. I want to go ahead and say how much I love Dr. C. He will sit in on every single echo with us and explain in detail what is going on. I never have to wait for results or a phone call. He is awesome. Anyhow, the older Camden gets the harder it is to keep him still. He doesn't get mad, he just wants to move. Basically the echo showed that the hole is still the same size with the tissue still covering part of the hole. It's still a large VSD but the tissue makes it actually moderate in size. I was kind of bummed because I was hoping it was a little smaller. He did explain that it can take a couple of years for this size hole to close and he still feels that it will. He mentioned that the closing can stall sometimes and a small hole will remain and at that time you have to determine if it's too risky to leave it open or to go ahead and close it. He told me not to even worry about that right now because we have plenty of time. There is still a good amount of shunting of blood going on between the ventricles but it does not seem to cause any problems at this time. All of his pressures in the heart and lungs look good. Dr. C said his only concern was RSV season. The VSD coupled with RSV would most likely land him in the hospital and some kiddos end up on a ventilator. Yikes! Now, I already knew this, but it sure does sound a lot scarier when someone else says it! I think we are going to have to keep the boy on lock down from November until March. He did get sick a few times last winter but did not get RSV and we were always able to manage it at home. We will just pray and hope that he stays healthy this winter. So for now we are still in a wait and watch approach with this and we don't have to go back for five whole months! This appointment was nothing but good news (well, other than that stinking hole still being there). We were all very excited and I'm still doing the happy dance!

      No big smiles in this picture!

    Look very closely. Those are actually 

         small fatty rolls on his arms!

      I thought I would let him drive 

               for a change!