Matthew's Yearly Heart Checkup Today

We go through this every year and have since Matthew was born, the yearly checkup with the cardiologist. The doc has told us from the beginning, "We don't want to see a change."

I guess I really should start by telling you just what it is that is wrong with his heart. When Matthew was born, the doctor found the murmur in his heart. He had an echo cardiogram done and then we met with the doc. In the valve in your heart, you are supposed to have three leaflets that open and close separately. Two of Matthew's leaflets are fused together. This causes his lil ticker to work twice as hard to pump the same amount of blood. That in turn causes the wall of his heart to thicken.

So Matthew has the tight valve, and the valve has a leak. Last year doc found a small hole in his heart.

On to what we learned today. The valve and leak have not changed much. They stayed close to the same as last year. The heart wall has stayed pretty close to the same. But.... The wall to his Aorta has thickened a lot. Last year it was measure at about 22 mm thick. This year it measured between 30 and 35mm thick. Dr. Kumbar told us that surgical intervention would not be necessary until it reaches 45 to 50 mm thick. The weird angle the blood pushes out of the heart and with the amount of pressure it has hitting the wall of the Aorta is what has caused the vessel wall to thicken. Doc said it's actually pretty common in patients like Matt.

He starts medication in the morning. Aetenol. I think that's how you spell it. He's not happy about it at all. And now instead of coming back in a year, he goes back in 6 months. Please when you read this, say a little prayer for Matthew.