A bit about Alex

That's my boy! He's holding a picture of his brothers and sisters that live in Oklahoma (with Daddy Ernie and Ashley). Every once in a while he just grabs their picture off of his bedroom door and carries it around with him saying, "I love my brothers and sisters!" (Especially Collin! He talks about him a lot!!)

This picture was taken a while ago - end of summer- but I think it's cute. Trying to be a 'big kid' but grinning so big his face is about to pop because he's by a Star Wars guy!!!

I need to update about the results of Alex's echo cardiogram and what our course of action is; let me start by saying we had the echo done because Alex is supposed to wear a CPAP mask all night to help with his sleep apnea, and has started taking it off during the night. Because of this, and since he hasn't had an echo done in a long time, his pulmonologist ordered an echo. I posted a picture of it in an earlier post. Nice, comfy room with a TV right in the line of sight for Alex to watch a movie of his choice, and I got to watch what's on the ultrasound screen and was fascinated even though I had no idea what was what. Those things are hard to decipher to the layman's eye!

The pulmonologist called 2 days later with the results; his right artery was thickened (because it's working too hard) and the pressure was 25 and according to her should be 14 so it was EXTREMELY high and I had to "make sure his oxygen sats stayed above 95% no matter what I had to do to keep them there." Yeah. I hung up the phone a little anxious, but knew she had placed a call to the cardiologist of choice (he's the expert in people with Down Syndrome who have pulmonary hypertension, which is the medical terminology for what Al has) so I just kept the phone by me and waited for his call.

Nothing.

A week later I finally called and scheduled an appointment. When we first got there we had to get a chest x-ray done, then an EKG and blood pressure. Alex is really good with medical procedures and, once again, was a great patient. When the doctor came in, he acted like he wasn't sure why we were there. His heart size is fine, according to the x-ray. His EKG and blood pressure were good, and yes, the echo showed a thickening of the artery, but that could have been a diagonal measurement of the artery instead of a straight across measurement, and a 26 blood pressure flow wasn't that bad. He suggested we do an angiogram (place a catheter through his femoral artery into his heart to get a better measurement of both the artery thickness and the pressure) then if there is hypertension, he can put medicine directly into the heart to find out which kind will work best for Alex.

He was so blase about it that I left feeling, "OK. No biggie." So we scheduled the angiogram for February 3rd. I will be better about blogging the results so everyone knows what is what.

I am so glad we live so near Primary Children's Medical Center. I know others who have the same love/hate relationship with the hospital as we do; love the care we receive, hate that we have to receive it.

I will keep you in touch!