Sedated Echo

Well, we survived the sedated echo (ultrasound of the heart) at UNC yesterday. It was a crazy day from start to finish. I'll do my best to keep it brief and to the point! Let me just say, our 1 hour appointment turned into 4 hours!

We arrived a few minuts early (as requested in our confirmation letter from the cardiology nurse) to fill out the required paperwork. Turns out there was some kind of mix up and even though cardiology had us on their calendar, they must've forgotten to put it in the hospital registration system! So then we had to get the run around because the registration folks had no clue what to do with us without an official appointment. They called the peds cath lab (where our appointment was supposed to take place) and the cath lab nurse told the registration folks to let us just come on back and they'd get everything fixed.

Once we got back to the cath lab, we had to wait at least half an hour for them to get us in the system and checked in and fill out paperwork. Then it was time to start sedation. By this point (9:30am) Ethan was already tired from being up 2 hours (this is about the time he would just be getting up). And it didn't help at all that he wasn't allowed to eat after 3am and no drinks after 6am. From the time we arrived, he just kept saying "nigh-night" and I told him that's what we were here to do - to take a nap. The nurse started with an oral dose of Versed to make him loopy and careless. His nurse warned us that if the oral med didn't help, they'd have to do an IV. Well sure enough, the med had the opposite affect - it made him more alert!

So, sure enough, the IV was ordered. This same nurse attempted to give Ethan an IV twice but both times the IV blew and so she had to call in some help. After 2 more attempts, they finally got a good vein in his right foot. Poor little guy was just miserable during all the poking and prodding. This just broke my heart to the point of tears at watching him endure all the pain - just to get him to take a nap! This whole process took the longest part of the day - lasting almost 2 hours. The hardest part was being asked to be the one to help hold him down while they tortured him. Now today he's got bruises in both arms, wrists, and feet.

Once he was asleep, we were able to call in the sonographer to begin the echo. This only took about an hour and we got to watch. Everything looks great with Ethan's heart function right now, so we're thankful for that! We are scheduled for another echo (not sedated, thankfully!) at the end of July and by that time, Ethan should be a little more cooperative since it'll be just a few weeks before his 2nd birthday!

After the echo, we had to wait around about another half hour for the anesthesia to wear off and let Ethan have some crackers, cheese and 2 juice boxes of apple juice. Once his nurse felt he was alert and coherent enough again, we finally got out of there! By that time, Dan and I were hungry so we went to my favorite place to eat around there - Mama Dip's! If you live in the are and have never been, you really ought to check it out sometime. It's one of the best southern-cooking restaurants around! Ethan was pretty cranky and irritable during the meal so we made it a quick meal.

Then we proceeded to make the hour drive back home and Ethan slept most of the way but then woke up once we got home and decided he'd had enough sleeping for the day. So we had a busy afternoon/evening keeping a close eye on him as he was still a little clumsy until dinnertime.

See, I told you it was a crazy day! Thanks for checking in on us. We don't have any other appointments coming up soon so we hope to just stay healthy and out of doctors offices/hospitals, except for visiting Ethan's cousin Annie when she's born - she's due on Saturday so we look forward to meeting her soon!