RaeAnn's Heart

Last year at RaeAnn's 3 year physical the doctor took an exceptionally long time listening to her heart....after just about 10 seconds I was curious, after a minute I was concerned. 5 minutes later she stepped back and told me she heard and arrhythmia and not just an inspiration arrhythmia that is very common among children. She said that's the reason she listened so long to make sure it wasn't from inspiration. So the pediatrician, who we LOVE by the way, told us we needed to take her for an EKG at the local Children's Hospital, she said it wasn't emergent but to not wait long than a couple days. We immediately took her to the hospital. I wasn't going to mess around!
RaeAnn was so good for the technician she was so curious about what was going on she laid perfectly still for her. And I snuck over to the machine to check it out. (When I was in the military I monitored "TELE"s in the ICU, so I have some basic knowledge on what a normal EKG or heart rhythm should look like) It looked OK to me, and when the technician printed the report it said "Normal EKG" So I thought we were in the clear and my pediatrician was just a little paranoid... A couple days later said pediatrician called. She said the EKG looked OK but she knew what she heard and she would feel more comfortable if RaeAnn saw a Pediatric Cardiologist. She referred us to her friend at Boston Children's. I was pretty excited about that. At least if RaeAnn needed a specialist we were 20 minutes away from THE best Children's hospital in the US.
Of course though we ran into trouble with our insurance. No one at Boston Children's was in their network and they wanted to send us an hour away to New Hampshire to a hospital I had never heard of!! I was going CRAZY!! When I called to make an appointment at the NH hospital even they were a little confused as to why we would be coming to them instead of going to Boston. So I think the secretary hooked me up a little she said she didn't have any openings for 2 months with her doctor and my insurance co. policy is if the network provider can not see you in 6 weeks you can schedule with a non-network. Praise the LORD that worked out!!
So off to Boston we went and it was quite a successful appointment. They schedule RaeAnn for an EKG and an echo cardiogram. But after the doctor examined her and looked over the EKG she said the echo wasn't necessary. The cardiologist said it was just a sinus arrhythmia caused from inspiration. & that we should have her rechecked in a year under the presumption that if it was something serious it would be more prominent after she grew some more, or that if it was nothing to worry about, she would "grow out of" whatever her doctor heard in the first place to cause concern.
When we saw our pediatrician at RaeAnn's 4 year check up she listened extra long to her heart again and made sure we had our check up appt with the cardiologist scheduled. The insurance was so nice to us this time around, they are let us see the same doctor even though she still isn't in the network. I don't think I have ever talked to a nicer insurance rep in my life! She totally understood my concern with continuity of care and staying with the same cardiologist in the same facility.
Today was RaeAnn's recheck and I am very happy to report that her heart got another clean bill of health (even though she wasn't as good as laying still this time around!) The sinus arrhythmia was still there but it was very clear on the EKG this time around that is was caused by her breathing. And since RaeAnn has NEVER had any symptoms such as fainting, dizzy spells, or fatigue, her cardiologist told us it was nothing to worry about and to "get out of here and don't come back!!" but of course she meant it in the nicest of ways! We no longer need a cardiologist for our four year old, which I am really happy about because no one that young should ever need one!
(However I am still going to make sure any doctor she has listens extra carefully to her heart, especially when she is older and playing sports...I'm one of those crazy moms who agrees all children should at least have a baseline EKG done at some point to try and avoid the cardiac arrest during high school football or baseball! It just breaks my heart every time I hear a story like that one the news!!)

It is so humbling to walk through children's hospital and see some kids that aren't so lucky to walk out of there with nothing to worry about. I gave RaeAnn lots of extra hugs tonight and silently thanked God for our beautiful daughter and her healthy ♥!