ECHO #2

Yesterday morning was my follow up ECHO. As you are aware the intention was to sedate me. I would need to go to the OR to receive an IV line as it is hard to find veins on me now, and also I was to be admitted in the hospital for at least an overnight stay to monitor my blood chemistry, as I do not do well on IV fluids. However the cardiologist thought that all this was unnecessary since I wasn't even going in for surgery, and informed my mommy that she will try to conduct the ECHO without sedating me.  This will be particularly tricky as there are 2 main reasons why they use sedation for this procedure.  The patient needs to be very still during an ECHO to get accurate results, and last time I checked, I don't understand the "stay still" command yet.

Mommy's plan was to try to keep me up for the car ride to Mac, and therefore I would sleep during the hour long procedure. Grandma was supposed to visit my GreatGrandma that day, but she loves me so much she offered to come along to make sure I was fed and to keep me awake as mommy had to drive.

As soon as the wheels started to roll on the car I was out like a light and didn't wake up until I could see the McMaster sign on the hospital building. Was there a plan B? Unfortunately not.

The lady that was conducting the ECHO on me, was named Rose, she weighed me in at 8.12kg and kept calling me "big boy" to my mommy's dismay. She commented on my last ECHO that the report indicated "baby cried through the entire procedure".  Great.....

I was laid down on the hospital bed, she put a few "purple heart" stickers on me to monitor my vitals and squirted some cold sticky gel on me.  She calmed me by telling me it was just like having a massage and that people usually pay big bucks. She let me listen to my heart beat a few times and I got to look at the screen and view my heart, which was pretty awesome.

I was a very good boy and laid as still as I could for almost the whole procedure, I only got fussy for the last 5 minutes.  Rose said I was done and that she will give the information and pictures to the main cardiologist who looks at the results that day and submits a report to my doctors in 7-10 days.