The Report

I should have known better. I was using the last time Nate went in as my guide - the time that he was a perfect patient and did so amazingly for his whole appointment - but today's appointment was about as different as it could be. My own fault....I certainly should have had Don come with us, but I thought I'd be able to do it on my own again.

Well, the drive in was great and horrible! The roads were perfect - but the passengers.....well, not so much! Malfunctioning DVD players, sun in the eyes, hearing "no appointment" how many times from Nate, whining and complaining. Doesn't that just sound like a great start to the day?!

To summarize:

Nate refused to take his shirt off at the clinic. There was crying, arguing '2 year old style', and just plain old refusal to do what we needed him to. The ultrasound technician didn't even try, but brought in Dr. Soni instead. She did an 'abbreviated' echo on Nate's heart (that's code for 'the child made it impossible to do a full study'!), while he sat upright in my arms, with his sweatshirt on (yes, she is a pretty amazing cardiologist!).

Things are about the same as last time. Not worse, so that is a good thing. The band is still where it was after surgery, ie. it is no tighter now than it was a year ago. But Nate has been gaining weight more consistently, so as long as he is medically well, we'll wait a bit longer. We'll go another 3 months and see where things are at then. She'll also communicate with Toronto after that next appointment to keep them in the loop as to where we're at. If at any time he's not doing as well, they will definitely go in and get that band to a tightness that they want - to help reduce the leaking from his valve. No electrical issues showing up right now, which is also good.

Maybe we're just now heading into the terrible two's....would that explain the changes in Nate's behavior? We did lose out on a couple of months last year; one month in Edmonton and the next 3 months at home. They have kind of become a 'black hole' when we think back! So even though he's turing 3 next month, maybe in his mind, he's really only starting on those 2 year old issues now!

Thanks for praying - hope your weekend is a fun one!