Cardiology Appointment

Today was Karmindy's yearly Cardiology appointment with Dr. Ronald Day. He has been her Cardiologist since birth and has been a good fit for our family. Karmindy's appointments are at the Primary Children's Riverton Extension office located in the Riverton Hospital. We have been so blessed to live right down the street from this amazing facility. It truly makes it nice having these services in our own "backyard" and saves us from spending all day driving to and from Primary Children's Hospital located  in the heart of  downtown Salt Lake City. These appointments are so mentally and physically draining for Karmindy and us and it is nice to be able to cut the commute out on these long appointment days.

These Appointments consist of getting chest xrays taken, blood pressures taken in both her arms and her legs, an echo, a EKG and another round of blood pressures being taken. After all of these are completed, Dr. Day will then meet us in an exam room and will go over what has changed and what hasn't for the past year and any concerns that he has. This year things seem to be about the same. However, Karmindy's stats  look great and her blood pressures in her arms and her legs are very close in numbers which was great news to us. This means that there isn't a huge difference in her upper and lower bodies blood pressures. Having blood pressures that are far a part can cause all kinds of problems. Dr. Day did express that Karmindy still has the same kinked or "pinched" space on her aorta which is located directly under the three branches that feed (the blood supply) her left and right sides of her brain. This has been a concern for the past couple of appointments over the past few years. The problem with the Pinched space is that it does lie right under the three branches that feed her brain. Normally they would put a stint on these "pinched" areas in the aorta but they would like to avoid a stint in this case because the metal fibers that the stint is made of could cause blood clots to form and she could have a stroke. So are only option is patching the area with a graft from a cadaver.

It sounds like the procedure would of course be risky (any surgery is a risk) but with her getting older and her body getting bigger it is a better surgery to do now rather than if she was a baby. The down time and healing process would end up being good and not hard. So for now, we will wait another year and see what the future holds. I hope modern medicine continues to get better; especially in the cardio-thoracic field. I am sure it will. They are always doing amazing procedures

We take the information that we received today as good news. We will hold on to the fact that Karmindy is growing, learning and keeping up with the other kids her own age. Dr. Day gave her clearance on any form of aerobic activity (baseball, soccer, dance, running) but warned against  gymnastics or any other type of sport that would place strain on this area. So no gymnastics, wrestling or weightlifting for our princess! :D Which we are ok with and not too worried that we will have to fight her on or talk her out of participating in!

I am so very grateful for modern medicine and all that has been done to keep our little girl here with us on earth. We are so grateful to have Karmindy as apart of our family!

Karmindy loves the waiting room toys and activities at Primary Children's Hospital Extention. Today she made a pinwheel, colored a picture and drove the pink car (her favorite color) all around the waiting room. I am glad for these fun things to keep her occupied while we wait. It makes these doctors visits more manageable and bearable.