A Good Echo

Jesse and I are here at Children's for all of his tests/appointments. We started off with an echo of his hear which showed the pulmonary pressure to be around 30 - a great improvement from the June reading of around 70! It looks like the increase in medication is helping. Dr. Ivy met with me to discuss things. He would like to do a heart cath in August that will give an actual measurement of the pressure (the echo is only an estimate). The cath also measures his response to oxygen and medications to best determine his treatment. Fortunately the pressure was lower this time, otherwise Dr. Ivy said he would have had to start him on other medications today.

After those appointments we had the pH probe inserted. It is a thin tube that goes through a nostril down the esophagus to right above the somach. It is attached to a small monitor where I can see the pH reading. This is used to diagnosis reflux. I have to push some buttons to tell it when Jesse starts and stops eating, and when he is either lying down or in an upright position. This helps the doctos tell if certain positions, activities, foods, etc. cause reflux. Jesse is having the test done because sometimes kids aspirate the fluid into their lungs, and that could be contributing to the pulmonary hypertension. Around an hour ago the machine started to malfunction - it's giving really strange reading - very low and even negative numbers. Now after some time trying to fix it they have given up and I think we are going home. I'll write more later.

Kristan