best "echo" yet!

Ethan had his 6 month follow-up appointment with his cardiologist this morning. We are very grateful for the good news we received. The doctor walked in after reading Ethan's echocardiogram and said that this was Ethan's best echo yet (huge sigh!) When Ethan was born, he had 3 main areas of narrowing: his aortic artery, his aortic valve and his mitral valve. All 3 areas are growing and currently show only minor narrowing. He has good blood pressures, pulses and blood flow.

Ethan cooperated very well. He was actually a very serious little boy, sitting and lying completely still during his blood pressure check, EKG and echo. I tried to get him to relax and at least smile, but he didn't move much. It was funny to see him like that, but it definitely helped make everything go smoothly.

Dr. A did talk to me a little about Ethan's future as far as playing sports are concerned. Ethan's aortic valve is not normal and never will be. It may require surgery or another type of intervention in the future, but it may not. Only time will tell that. Either way, there is a good chance that this abnormal valve will limit Ethan as far as competitive sports are concerned, especially in the area of the intense conditioning required for these sports. Playing t-ball, basketball and soccer at the preschool/elementary level is fine, but he may not be able to pursue them into highschool because of the limitations of his heart.

As parents, we don't like to hear those kinds of things, but we do trust that God has a perfect plan for Ethan's life. It will be exciting to see what happens. His next appointment will be in nine months - the longest he has gone between appointments!

We have so much to be grateful for. I have mentioned Cora in previous posts and following her story the last few weeks has brought back a lot of memories of the scary times we experienced with Ethan. When he was 6 days old, we almost lost him. It could have been Ethan in that little casket at the front of the church. God spared his life and spared us so much grief and sorrow. I wish He would have spared Cora's life too.