More Miracles

You are my special angel
Sent from up above
The Lord smiled down on me
And sent an angel to love

-- "You Are My Special Angel" (Bobby Helms)

We just returned from the children's cardiology center. There has never been any danger of the staff forgetting Erik. They are amazed at how much he has grown. Erik walked right into the nurses' station singing "You Are My Special Angel," which is our song. Stinky Dog was allowed to come on this adventure, and Erik introduced him to the ladies. Luckily, he was less stinky than he usually is.

Erik previously received a DVD on John Deere tractors for his birthday from his friend Brandon in Portland. It is now on his top 10 list of favorite things. I brought it along to give to the technicians, and it was placed in the DVD player, much to Erik's delight. He also took advantage of the little wooden train set. For the very first time, Erik allowed himself to be weighed (35.7 lb.) and measured with a little reassurance from Brian, and his blood pressure and pulse were done without tears. Ten leads were placed on his chest, and an electrocardiogram was performed. The technician printed him his own sheet of graph paper striped with the jagged peaks and valleys of his heartbeat. The lights were then turned down, and I snuggled up to Erik on the bed as the skin on his bare chest was dotted with more stickers clipped with wires. Even Stinky had a sticker placed on top of his head.

It was over before we knew it. No sedation required. As an added bonus, the technician now is quite knowledgeable about steam tractors.

After the study, Dr. T came in to explain what she had seen on the study. Miraculously, there is no narrowing whatsoever in the blood vessels they imaged. Surprisingly, the study was suggestive of a bicuspid aortic valve (or two of three leaflets sticking together), and they will look at this again next year. However, this was merely an incidental finding.

We said our goodbyes, and a photo was snapped of Erik to place on the wall. We then walked over to the orthopedic center to look for our neighbor behind the coffee counter, but she was not working yet. The woman working in her place assured Erik she would tell her he had stopped by to visit, and I bought a couple chocolate chip cookies before we headed back home.