Update and ramblings.

In case you missed this little bit from yesterday I thought I'd re-post in a more visible way.

I went to the cardiologist yesterday. The first thing Dr. Pierce asked me about was if I knew Rick Westra, as Rick used to pitch and he would always throw the baseball hard at him. He said he always thought Rick would get picked up by the Minnesota Twins some day. So I told him that Rick was indeed my husband and that despite a couple of tryouts for the Twins, that fast ball of Ricks was only in the 8o's (mph) and you need to throw 90's for pro baseball.

And then with small talk over, I got a thorough exam! He asked copious questions about my health history. Ironically, I used to have a history of fainting, which was always dismissed as being anything related to my heart. But he said that could be a good indicator of something amiss and that needs to be checked. He then said I had 4 significant events of tachycardia during my holter monitor test. However, the rhythm of the beat was normal. Overall, my heart rate though was higher than what they would consider normal.

So before he prescribes any kind of beta blocker to slow my heart rate down, he wants more tests. He also noted my liver function tests are elevated and I need to go back to Dr. Twedt for that. *sigh*

He asked about my preference for the tests and I said since we're paying out of pocket, I preferred the "cheap" ones. He laughed, but he also carefully explored the options with me before we proceeded.

So next week I will have an echocardiogram to look for any enlargement of the heart and for the shortness of breath and lightheadedness I'll do a stress test. I felt like he listened and asked a lot of questions, and he didn't make it seem overly serious, but he wasn't dismissive either.

Have any of you had a stress test? Does anyone take beta blockers? Anyone want to weigh in with their experience, I'm all ears! Thank you all for your prayers and concern :)

On another note, we've officially ended Birthday week. Colton really enjoyed his day yesterday. He oohed and ahhed over his gifts. He opened his card from Uncle Matt and Aunt Julie and was so excited to see a 10 dollar bill, but then he quickly saw there were a couple of other bills in there and he went crazy jumping up and down. He also got a cool Pittsburgh Steelers super bowl champs shirt from his cousins Madi and Alex and a cool book filled with things that boys like! Thanks everyone!

I even got a gift, a wonderful note from his teacher. She said the frogs were great and Colton was so proud to hand them out. She said a couple of other things about his maturity and what a good learner he is. She then closed her note with how much she enjoyed him and that she would miss him next year. And I felt the sincerity. The biggest gift for me is that my son's teacher gets him in the way that I do. And I know its because she really cares about her students and is an amazing teacher.

With 8 graduation parties coming up, I also decided it was time for haircuts yesterday. I took the boys after school. Nolan was adamant that he not lose the length and told the girl exactly what he wanted. He was so excited she listened to him. When it came time to go, Colton was offered a sucker and money for the toy machine and Nolan wasn't for the first time. I didn't say anything, wondering what his reaction would be. We got to the car and I finally asked him how he felt about not getting anything. He said, "Its fine, I'm 9 now, way too old for that kid stuff." Ouch, I thought. Spoken like a teenager. *sigh*