Well I think that Makenna is taking after me. The doctors have been concerned about Makenna's weight the past few times that we have gone in for her routine check-ups and suggested that we have some testing done just to rule out anything serious that could be causing her to be low in weight. They suggested that we get an echo-cardiogram (echo) done (an ultrasound of the heart) as well as blood and urine cultures.
Our first stop was the Echo-Cardiogram. In Makenna's 9-Month appointment as well as in her 12-Month appoinment the doctors had heard a heart murmur. We went out to Murrieta to meet with a pediatric cardiologist to get the echo done. We were so nervous before the appointment because we were worried what they might find, but also because she was a one year old that had to lay still for 15-20 minutes while they looked at her heart. We had read that possibly if the child was moving around too much, that they might have to sedate them and we were very concerned with how active Makenna is that she would have to be sedated. Luckily, she did absolutely wonderfully through the whole test. She laid the most still that I have ever seen her lay while she was fully awake. I think it did help that we arrived early and were able to let her run around in the waiting room before the procedure was done:-) When the echo was finished, the pediatric cardiologist told us that she has mild pulmonary stenosis. For those of you who don't understand that (like me), it means that the valve that leads from the heart to the lungs is slightly narrowed and therefore has to work a bit harder to pump blood through. The pediatric cardiologist said that it is something that could possibly correct itself and that usually they don't see this get worse after one year of age. That was a huge relief to us to hear and we will have another appointment in four months just to insure that it hasn't gotten worse. The effects of this condition, since it is so mild, are pretty much nothing. He recommended that she take a small dose of antibiotic before a dental cleaning to prevent the rare possibility of getting a heart infection. Since the pulmonary stenosis is so mild, she won't have to be excluded from any sports or activities and that this would not cause her to be underweight.
On our next check-up with Makenna's doctors, they told us that since the heart wasn't the cause of her being underweight they wanted to get some blood work and urine tests done to rule out kidney, liver, and other problems. Again, we were nervous about blood work especially because how do you hold a toddler still enough not to pull the needle out of their arm. But, yet again Makenna proved to us that we had nothing to worry about. The person drawing the blood said that Makenna was a "slow bleeder". So after about 10 minutes she was finally able to get the 4 vials of blood drawn. Makenna just happily sat in my lap while the blood was being drawn while Toby kept her distracted with his cell phone. There were no tears. Again the blood work test results came back with all normal levels.
Now on to the urine test. If you don't want to hear any details of this than you may want to just skip to the next paragraph:-) I never really thought about how you would have to collect a urine sample from a toddler that does not yet know how to control her bladder and still wears a diaper. Well, I got to find out:-P They gave me four little sticker baggies that are supposed to be applied to "the area" and then left in the diaper, checked frequently, and then taken out to reveal a urine sample. Haha!! Let's just say that after 3 attempts, I still had nothing to bring to the doctors. I was absolutely determined not to have them insert a catheter to get the sample, so instead I kept handing Makenna more and more water to drink and stood in the bathroom (the most easy to clean, pee proof place in the house) and waited to catch the urine in the cup when she finally went. I was victorious!! And aside from that I didn't end up with a huge mess because I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The test results from the urine sample also came back normal.
In case you skipped the urine talk, the tests came out normal:-)
So I guess my genes win out over Toby's. Makenna is healthy but small. In actuality, she is still bigger than me at her age. So who knows...maybe she will hit a huge growth spurt and end up 6 ft. 2 inches like her daddy:-) No matter what height she ends up, we are just so relieved to know that she is healthy and no more tests need to be done at this point.
