Annual Cardiology Visit

This fall has been busy for our family.  Ripley had a couple of bad fevers that led us to take him to the hospital twice (once locally and once in Hawaii).  Thankfully, he was fine, but we still wanted to be extra careful.

Ripley has been doing great.  He is now three years old, talks up a storm, plays hard, and is such a happy boy.  He was so excited to participate for the third time in the Bay Area Superhero Heart Run.  This year, I helped a little bit with organizing the run and Ripley was asked to lead the Heart Warrior parade.  The original child who was going to lead the parade ended up being scheduled for open heart surgery the week after the race so he and his family could not make it.  

The run was a great way to reconnect with other heart families, get outside for a great cause, and have fun.  My kids so enjoyed playing with the characters from Peter Pan Foundation.

Today, Ripley had his annual cardiology visit.  He was not too excited to go to the doctor, but he did a great job sitting still for the EKG and the echocardiogram.

                                         Ripley wanted to pose a few days ago.

Sitting nice and still for the EKG.

His cardiologist said that Ripley has very mild stenosis.  He has mild to moderate leakage that is not concerning.  He indicated that "this is what you want a heart to look like after surgery."  He said there is a moderate chance that Ripley will not need any further intervention.  Ripley's muscle tissue under the pulmonary valve has not thickened (which is our biggest concern that thickened tissue would require it to be shaved down through open heart surgery when he gets older) and his doctor said it is likely he won't need a pulmonary valve replacement.  

Each year's appointment is nerve wracking and we feel so blessed that Ripley is doing well.  We know that many other children have a tougher time and trajectory so we do not take this for granted.