4.12.2013

Heart Murmurs

Little D had his 2 month well child exam this week, he's doing great :o).  And I absolutely love our Pediatrician, he is so on track and knows everything that's going on with his patients.  The minute he walked into the exam room he said "so a healthy, clean heart report from the Cardiologist huh?", he had received and reviewed the notes from Miss K's EP Cardiologist about Little D.  Strange he did not mentioned the murmur he had heard.  When I told the Pediatrician that the EP Cardiologist had heard a murmur he was quick to listen for himself.  He said that if I hadn't of mentioned it he never would have heard the murmur because it's so faint you'd have to be listening for it specifically to hear it.  This is apparently a very good thing.  He explained the murmur is just the blood flow from heart to lungs make a small turn about before completing the cycle, not necessarily a hole in his heart anywhere.  Completely normal and should be outgrown quite soon.

I mentioned Miss K's new found murmur while we were there, I was disappointed that I was not able to take Miss K with me to this appointment, I'm still not comfortable taking her and the baby anywhere alone since she still needs to be carried through parking lots and public places and the baby also needs carrying, I'm not that talented yet lol.  I wanted to know his thoughts anyway, even if he couldn't have a listen for himself.  He was wonderful about explaining it.  Apparently when a murmur is suddenly heard in an older child it means it has always been there, it's nothing new.  When the murmur is found later in childhood it's an existing hole that was very large in the beginning and the blood flow through it was moving so fast that it makes it sound like a normal heart sound, they are usually seen on an echo if one happens to be done, as the hole gets smaller with the child's growth it is more and more noticeably heard with a stethoscope.  This would be the reason Miss K's EP Cardiologist was surprised to hear the murmur at her last appointment, she has had so many echo's and EKG's that it is strange for them to have not found it before.  I'm not sure what to think here.  In a way I'm relieved they never found it before, but I'm also nervous about it.  If they had seen it on an echo in her first few weeks of life they may have likely panicked and, depending on where it is and how bad it is, she may have been sent in for open heart surgery to close it.  It's a possibility this hole has been the cause of her persistent SVT, if so, and we had had open heart surgery, she may not have had to battle SVT at all afterwards, which definitely would have been wonderful.  But, I am so relieved they did not find this hole and that it did not need repair when she was little.  I could not have handled open heart surgery on my tiny baby and I am very happy we did not have to go through that.  I'm also extremely thankful that this hole hasn't caused any issues with her, other than possibly being the cause of her SVT, it would have been scary to have other issues with her heart.

I'm happy to say I feel a bit better after this little chat with the Pediatrician.  He made it all sound OK, and it's definitely a good thing that this hole in her heart is getting smaller.

On another note...Miss K has made it 4 months SVT free!  This is THE longest stretch we have ever had between episodes.  YAY MISS K!  Here's to hoping this stretch is a very, very long one.  6 months or a year SVT free would be heavenly :o).  Dang, I sure hope I didn't jinx it by typing this up.  Everyone **Knock on wood** a few times for us!