Clean Bill Of Health

Yesterday I took Sarah to see her Cardiologist, Dr. Kort. I love Dr. Kort, he is a very nice, patient man, and he always has a smile on his face. I like him way better than his partner and am so glad that he was the one that was on-call when we took Sarah to the Emergency Room so many years ago (okay, it really was only four, but so many sounds more dramatic and it really does seem like a long time ago). He was the lucky man that got to tell us that Sarah needed emergency heart surgery and was going to be transferred to a different hospital. The way he told us, however, made it seem like it was no big deal and that everything would be okay. It was probably because of him that I underestimated how big her issues really were that week she was in the hospital, but at the time it was better to be naive and not know than be aware of what was really going on. That probably would have killed me.

Anyway, so we went to see Dr. Kort. We usually go to one of his satellite offices, one that is closer to our house but that he only goes to every other Tuesday afternoon. Seriously, it sounds like a joke but that's when he goes. He goes to a different office every afternoon, or almost, so he can see patients from all over the Dallas area, or if you live here they call it the Metroplex, and people don't have to drive as far to see him. For some reason, they told me but I can't remember why because it doesn't have an impact on my daily life and I can barely remember to eat breakfast, he wasn't going to be able to make our original appointment at that office so I ended up rescheduling at his main office in Dallas. It's not that I'm afraid to go to Dallas or anything, it's just a huge pain. There's tons of traffic and it was raining and the appointments always take so long. I like the satellite office because we're the only ones there and they don't have any other patients to see and we get out pretty quickly. When we go to the main office, the appointments take forever. Yesterday we were there for two hours. Sarah did okay but Amanda was starting to lose it and I was so thankful Andy was at camp or it would have been a disaster. My kids love to fight at the doctor's office, any doctor's office, because they leave you in those small, cramped rooms for hours with nothing but torn books and broken toys. Basically it was a very long morning.

Sarah was a little hesitant when Dr. Kort walked in the room because much to my annoyance she has been painfully shy with people lately. Once he let her listen to her heart (and mine and Amanda's) with his stethoscope she warmed up. I have no idea if she actually heard anything, but she says she did so that's all that really matters. I won't bore you with the rest of the details of the appointment, but the end result was she is doing great. Her aorta is growing at the same rate that she is and there are no signs of the coarctation coming back and he reduced our twice-yearly visits to once a year.

Hurray! That is fabulous news. Not that we were worried that there was anything wrong, but it was nice to hear that everything is great. He's happy about her progress and that's all I care about. Unfortunately due to everything with her legs we still have a long road ahead of us, but knowing that her heart is healthy makes the rest a lot easier to deal with. We're getting closer. Hopefully someday, SOMEDAY, we really will be able to look back on this as only a memory.