Getting to the heart of the matter?

So the day dawned bright and beautiful - and we spent a lot of it inside!

W has been having dizzy spells accompanied by heart palpitations for a while now and so we were referred to the cardiologist. This is a new specialist for us - we've 'done' paediatricians, audiologists, speech therapists, occupational specialists, developmental paediatrician, developmental therapists , psychologists/psychiatrists, orthopaedics, optometrists/ophthalmologist, behavioural intervention workers and dietitians galore - but not cardiology before!

He did an ECG, an echo cardiogram and a stress echo - more ultrasound after treadmill.

End result - essentially healthy heart but something is going on. I hate to think how much all of that is going to cost us - thank heavens for health insurance!

So the next time he has an episode I have to take his pulse and record the rate. We also have to rush him to the hospital if we're close enough and get an ECG done. He needs one done during an episode for the cardio to know what's happening. The other possibility is to take him in to the private hospital and get an event monitor to attach to him so that he can wear that for about 2 weeks and hopefully have another episode while he's wearing it.

But the wonderful news is that he doesn't believe it's anything life threatening. I knew we weren't going to get answers today really as the episodes seem random with nothing in particular triggering them - so we'd have to be really incredibly lucky to catch one while we were there! But it would have been nice to have had some kind of answer rather than now having to wave a vague butterfly net at the problem.

W's happy - he was worried he wouldn't be allowed to play soccer - first practice is this Sunday!

The doctor did seem to think that the cisapride W was on for nearly 2 years for his reflux wouldn't have any effect - but he also said it didn't have any cardio effects at all - when it's know to extend the QT sequence. So I'll have to keep researching because the last thing we need is to be creating a time bomb in T!

And so we're in a holding pattern for W, it's back to the battle front with T - time next week to chase the GP over the formula, antacid and surgery for T. The hospital we were at today is where N had his surgery and where T will have his. I watched as they wheeled someone past us all dressed up for theatre and I could see T's tiny body in my mind's eye, lying on one of those huge beds...so not looking forward to this.

And so we keep trucking onwards,
Eleanor.