Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Echocardiogram and EKG: Matt's Pre-Op Tests

We woke up to a beautiful morning on the first day of spring. The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming... oh, that's right. We live in Western New York.


Well, it is the first day of spring, even if it is 22 degrees (F) and we're in the midst of a lake effect storm. Matt had an appointment for an EKG and echocardiogram at our local hospital at 8:00 am, so we were up early to clear the snow and get on our way.


The local hospital is very close to our house, which was very convenient. Most of our appointments have a 2 hour drive (each way) as a minimum, so it  was delightful to drive 15 minutes and arrive early for the appointment. We checked into the cardiology unit, and were informed that the pediatrician's office hadn't faxed over the order. They tried to contact the pediatrician's office while Matt amused himself.


The pediatrician's office doesn't open until 9:00 am, so there was a lot of back-and-forth with the paperwork issue. They finally decided to take Matt back and start the echo while waiting on the order.


The echo took a while to complete, and Matt giggled frequently (he's very ticklish). I was grateful he was cooperative, as he has a history of completely freaking out over anything that involves a person in a white coat (dental x-rays are a nightmare). The order hadn't arrived yet, and no one was sure whether an EKG should be performed.


The tech finally returned and brought the EKG machine with her. Since we didn't have the order, the safest bet was to do the EKG - if it wasn't on the order, then she'd throw it away. She didn't want us to have to return in the middle of a lake effect snow storm. I was highly appreciative. They did the EKG, which only takes a few seconds to perform. The receptionist arrived with the order just as we were wrapping things up - the order did include an EKG, so it is good that we had it performed.

I took Matt to Tim Horton's for a doughnut (he chose an Easter Egg shaped donut) and we headed home. I let him chill out and have his doughnut, then took him to school.

I haven't heard any news regarding the echo or EKG yet, so I assume no news is good news. Hopefully it was just an innocent murmur.

We report for surgery at 11:00 am at Sister's Mercy in Williamsville tomorrow.

3 comments:

TheSweetOne said...

Glad it went well and the hospital was so supportive! Perhaps the tech wearing dark blue was the secret??

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Hurray for some medical folks with common sense (!) and that it was so completely non-traumatic for Matt.

Gracious, what a first day of spring!

Julie

dlefler said...

I do think the dark blue makes a difference - no "white coat" syndrome! I also told him it was just pictures and we talked a lot about it beforehand. Still waiting for the results... thought the anesthesiologist said she heard mitral valve regurgitation... so that's probably what the murmur is.