We had quite the scare two weeks ago and last week was pretty eventful and scary for us! I was changing Ava's earring in my bathroom one day and she started pulling away from me so I thought maybe it hurt and went to pull her back closer to me. When I looked at her eyes her pupils were dilated so big and I could immediately tell she wasn't there. She kept going back so I caught her as she fell to the ground and realized that she had just fainted on me! As she lay there her hands curled up and she sort of flopped around like she was having a mini seizure. It was so scary!!! When she came to she was very upset and said "mama that is what happens to me at school!" She's never fainted there but she's felt dizzy at times.
The doctor did several tests on her and ran an EKG. A couple of days later they called me and told me to go see the cardiologist because the EKG came back with possible Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. I already had an appointment for Friday and when I got back to my desk at work I began looking up what LVH was and immediately freaked out! It could be life threatening and require heart surgery or possible transplant depending on the cause of it. I was on the phone all day trying to get answers but nobody would return my calls until the next day. Steve and I were both so upset. I couldn't sleep and every second I looked at my child I worried that she could have a possible life threatening heart disease. I briefly was in the shoes of parents who receive terrible news about their child's health. I can't imagine what they go through on a day to day basis and how they pull through. Every time I looked at her I thought of the possibility of losing her. It was the worst 3 days of my life.
On Friday we went in for her Cardiology visit and it turns out that we actually had ballet with the cardiologists daughter so we already knew her! I watched as they did the Echo and it was amazing seeing Ava's heart on the screen. I watched as she measured the thickness and the size of the valves etc. The doctor came in shortly after and said that her echo looked good and no LVH! That was the best news I've ever heard and what a relief! They decided to send her home with a halter monitor to rule out any arrhythmia's and that came back today as normal. Again, great news! She does still have the murmur that they thought had disappeared, but it's still innocent so no concerns there.
Based on her blood pressure tests it looked like she is easily dehydrated (her blood pressure drops and heart rate increases for quite some time when she stands up). I was surprised by this and said she drinks fluids constantly. The doctor said some children are just way more sensitive to fluid imbalances and because she's so tiny it's not surprising that she is one of them. So lots and lots of water for Ava and plenty of salty snacks. We have made her carry her water with her everywhere and drink all day. So far we haven't had any dizzy spells and she seems to be feeling good. We'll see how she does at school, as that's when she's told me more than once that she felt bad on the playground and had to sit down. We will do bloodwork at her visit in a couple of weeks to check for anything there, but so far all has been great news!
All results of the halter monitor were normal!
