What Can I Say...She Has Big Heart

Yesterday was Olivia's appointment at the cardiologist and it went GREAT!! I've never been so happy to hear someone tell me *congratulations, you'll never have to see me again*.

First of all this was one of the best doctor's office we've been to, they actually had toys for the kids to play with (I guess since they didn't actually see sick kids to spread germs). When we went in for our exam and tests the nurse brought Olivia's favorite ELMO in with her, heck they had 2 ELMO's for her to play with. They weighed her, measured her, took her blood pressure, and her oxygen level. If you've ever done the last two with an 18 month old you know how difficult it can be and this was just the beginning. After that she had to do an EKG where they hook all the sticky things on you and take a few readings, again another difficult task with an 18 month old. Once we did that it was time for our ECHO, which is pretty much an ultrasound of the heart. They took a ton of pictures to study and make sure Olivia's heart was in good shape. During this part of the exam the doctors office really impressed me. They had a portable DVD player attached to a bracket on the wall hanging so the kids could watch cartoons while laying down getting the ECHO done, this place was pretty darn cool. Of course Olivia watched ELMO, what a surprise. Since we have a family history of aneurysms they took extra pictures to make sure, I think they took about 100(not kidding). If you think it's cool to see the heartbeat of your baby during a prenatal ultrasound just imagine how neat it is to actually see your babies heartbeat while holding her hand watching ELMO.

After the ECHO the doctor came in to give us the results-Olivia was just fine she has a normal, innocent heart murmur. He actually called it a "stills" murmur. He also said that Olivia's murmur is slightly louder then the average toddler's murmur, his exact term was *noisy normal* go figure look who her mother is:) I asked why and what causes it to be louder then average. He said she was a big girl in the 98% of all kids her age, this was a very common murmur for toddlers but they usually don't occur until later in the toddler years and that is what is causing her murmur to be louder then normal(again it's just fine). The best way to describe it is, when your born your head is the biggest part of your body and you grow into it, your head is what helps sustain your body. As you grow your heart takes over and sustains your body. Being the big girl that she is her heart is bigger, louder then average kids her age to help sustain her growing body. She will eventually grow out of this murmur and will have no restrictions in her life, YAY!!

What can I say my girl has a BIG loud heart that is perfectly normal:)