Three months!
Today we met with Dr. Brenner in cardiology because our regular pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Spevak, is on vacation. Today's appointment was the two week post-op check-up for Corey. First we started with the vitals: blood pressure of 100/51 (slightly high), oxygen saturation levels of 85% (woohoo!), EKG (fine), weight of 15 lbs 4 oz (always a little less than the scale at the pediatrician's office indicates).Dr. Brenner said Corey is doing great! He said that Corey can take baths again, can go back to "tummy time", can be picked up under the arms. We also asked him about flying with Corey and he said that it would be fine now that Corey is post-Glenn! We are really excited about that possibility. And perhaps best of all, he said that our next appointment wouldn't be for three months!! Jenn and I were both a little surprised about that. Dr. Brenner said that while the B-T Shunt physiology is a little precarious, the Glenn physiology is very stable and they wouldn't expect much change in Corey until the Fontan surgery in a few years. Therefore we don't need the monthly visits any longer (yea!).
Dr. Brenner recommended that Corey receive Synagis shots to prevent the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The shots are given during RSV season which is usually October to April. He said that with Corey's heart defect, he's at risk of developing pneumonia if he picked up the virus. He said the shots are recommended for preemies, babies with lung disease, and babies with heart disease. We'll have to look into it and make sure the shots are covered by our insurance as they are very expensive.
Dr. Brenner reduced the doses of Lasix to once a day from two times and kept the Captopril the same. He said the Lasix would probably be stopped at the next visit and they'll probably let Corey outgrow the Captopril on his own. The Captopril is the "most difficult" medicine that Corey is taking for three reasons: 1) most pharmacies don't have the capability to make it so we've had to go to Hopkins to get it, 2) it must be refrigerated so if we go out we need to worry about keeping it cold in a cooler, and 3) each bottle is good for only a month before it expires.
Since it appears that Corey will be on it for awhile, we're going to see if we can get the Captopril from a Howard County General Hospital pharmacy instead. It's a shame because we love the Hopkins pharmacy. They've gone out of their way to help us numerous times. And because we're not going to be visiting Hopkins as often as we have been (yea!) it would be harder to get up there just to pick up the Captopril.
Corey had a relatively short echocardiogram to check for fluid build-up around the heart. The echo showed Corey's heart function is good and there is no fluid build up.
Finally, we had an appointment to see the surgeon, Dr. Vricella. As one might imagine, Dr. Vricella is a very elusive doctor. We were only able to visit for a few minutes but he is extremely happy with how Corey is doing. As we were leaving he indicated that we could stop by next time when he would hopefully have more time to talk to us.
In all it was a very encouraging day!
Damian
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