This morning, Susanne and Paxton had to drop Moppy off at the Metro so she could get to work. She took the Metro everyday to work, but she usually drove herself. Unfortunately, with all of the car trouble Scott and Susanne were having, she had to adjust her routine. On a positive note, this meant that she got to be chauffeured around and dropped off at the "kiss and ride". Susanne and Paxton waved good-bye to Moppy and she was well on her way.
From there, they headed off to Paxton's cardiology appointment. Overall, the cardiologist thought that Paxton looked stable. His oxygen saturation levels were about the same as the last time and his ECG looked comparable as well. At this visit, he was scheduled for a follow up heart ultrasound. This always made the appointment last extra long. The last one had been over a month ago so he was well overdue for a recheck. Paxton got a little agitated this time when they were scanning his heart. It was a little uncomfortable for him when they had to place the probe up near his neck. The nurse was getting frustrated and could not quite understand why Susanne just couldn't give him a bottle or pacifier. Susanne tried to remind her of his other medical conditions and inform her of his aversion to anything in his mouth at this time. For most babies, a bottle or pacifier would calm them down, but for Paxton it would elicit the opposite response. Paxton always went against the grain.
The cardiologist evaluated the heart ultrasound before Susanne and Paxton left the office. The good news was that his heart was looking stable. The BT shunt that was surgically put in place was still wide open. Over time, Paxton would outgrow this shunt. It would be at that time that the cardiologist would decide what the next step would be. Susanne had already been prepared that it would be a surgery of some sort, but they just did not know what the best approach would be quite yet. The cardiologist also thought that she saw some evidence of blood flow through his pulmonary artery, which had not been present before. This was a positive sign that the right ventricle was functioning a little bit better than before and starting to do it's job. Also, the abnormal hole between the right and left atrium was showing blood flow in two directions instead of just one. The cardiologist also thought that this may be a positive change. Unfortunately, neither of these findings would change the plan of action or course of treatment at this time. The idea was that he would still need his first reconstructive heart surgery around six months of age.
After the appointment, Paxton was behind on his feeding schedule and Susanne was behind with her pumping. Once Susanne got Paxton out of the pouring rain and situated in the car, she decided she needed to address both issues as soon as possible. Susanne ended up moving the car to a more private area of the parking lot. In addition to it taking a lot of time to complete both tasks, there was also a lot of prep work that went into setting up for both things. She wasn't sure why but, she always felt like she was doing something illegal when she had to do this. There was this sense of paranoia like she was going to be caught in action doing something wrong. She was always looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was around or watching. She kept an eye out for onlookers and tried to remain very hidden from plain sight. Even with Paxton's feeding she felt on guard. She was sure people would question why she had a stethoscope, syringes, and other equipment. She chuckled at the thought of someone trying to figure it all out. No matter what, a mom's got to do what a mom's got to do, right?
Once they finally got home, they both spent the rest of the day trying to get back on schedule. If time allowed, Susanne was hoping to catch up on a few things as well. Good luck with that...Susanne should have known better.
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