Good news!

Hattie sees a fabulous pediatric cardiologist, Dr. P. due to an atrial septal defect. From what I understand, this is a hole in the upper chambers of her heart that allows the blood to flow backwards, forcing her body to work extra hard to move all the blood she needs. The last time we saw Dr. P, in January, Hattie had a chest x-ray and it showed that her heart was enlarged. At this visit there were also 2 attempts at an EKG(ever tried to hold a 3.5 month old still long enough to complete an EKG?) and an echocardiogram, during which Dr. P managed to manipulate an infant toy to keep Hattie's attention, run the echo machine and alternate between soothing noises and medical descriptions of Hattie's heart. Quite impressive. At this time we talked about medication(which we decided to wait on), the hole was considered large, and we were told to come back in 2 months and watch for signs of heart failure.

Today the radiologist who looked at Hattie's x-rays could not even tell that her heart was enlarged. Dr. P said that it is still a little enlarged, but we think her heart is doing what we want it to, meaning that the heart will grow larger and the hole will stay the same size, gradually making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the chamber wall. Her weight continues to be good, she's active and her EKG looked great. We don't have to go back for 4 months!

Hooray!