Cardiology Update

This is just a "quick" update about Julianne's Cardiology appointment today. She did pretty well. We talked a lot about what was going to happen before we got there and she seemed ok until it was time for the pulse ox reading...then it was all over. She did well with the echo and excellent when it was time to visit with Dr. Crapanzano. We are making some adjustments to her medication Amiodarone. She has to have most of it out of her system by the time of her cath on April 28th. The reason for this is that they will try to "stir up" her SVT causing Arrhythmia in the cath lab and, if they can find it, eliminate the pathyway by doing an ablation. Unfortunately, Amiodarone stays in the system for like 90 days! So....Amiodarone is being cut in half and we're adding Propranolol and Digoxin. That brings the total medication count to 11. The Propranolol and Digoxin are to help prevent any break through SVT. Seven days before we leave the Amiodarone will be stopped completely. Dr. Crapanzano said to just be prepared that an SVT episode would probably mean an ICU admit and IV meds. We DEFINITELY don't want that to happen. We are supposed to check Julianne's heart rate using the pulse oximeter every few days to make sure its where its supposed to be...not higher than 160 or lower than 65. Please pray that this Amiodarone wean will go smoothly, with no SVT issues and all will be well for the cath on April 28th.

In the awesome news department...Julianne drank - DRANK!!!! - 30ml of whole milk today!! That's 1 ounce! She took each sip totally on her own. Normally, I have to pour it in her mouth or squeeze the sides of the cup to get it to pour into her mouth. This time I told her to take a sip after each bite of baby food and she did! Now, she didn't really express any enjoyment in drinking the milk. She was pretty much ready to be done after like 10 sips, but she continued and drank 30ml from her little yellow cup in her own little hands. Wonderful. :) I tried it again this evening, however, and she wasn't really into it at all...hit or miss I guess. It was still a great accomplishment for her and I'm very thankful for it!

Its no secret that I love taking pictures of Julianne. The poor kid probably thinks the camera is an extension of my body! We have an unbelievable amount of pictures of Julianne. Well, today was no different:

I have these two basket-like floor cushions that I keep stacked up with a pillow on top of them. They look like this:

And yes, they often have a cute, bow-headed little girl climbing on them. I am loving that Julianne feels free to take the pillow off, take the floor cushions apart and make herself comfortable. Like this:

Its a great reading spot for her! Never would I have imagined they'd be so useful.