Little Thumper

Today was Natie's EKG. I was a little nervous, even though it was just his one-year check up. When he was a few months old he had one to check out every nook and cranny because heart defects occur in roughly one-half of babies born with T21. During that visit, a PDA was discovered, but nothing very alarming. In fact, our pediatrician didn't even schedule a second look. He told us that most times, PDAs will close up during the first 6 months or so. During our visit today I asked the tech if she would tell me what she saw, and she said she couldn't do that. She could only talk about the PDA because we already knew about that. But as the minutes ticked on (no pun intended) she became enamored with Nate (as everyone does!) and couldn't suppress her delight in his good nature, giggles and songs. She remarked at the wonderful blood flow through the aorta and finally couldn't resist the comment we were dying to hear..."what a beautiful heart!" Oh...indeed. In so many more ways than what her screen could reveal. Earlier this week Nate went in to see Dr. Roup for some shots. He was impressed and pleased with his progress and said, "he is blowing the doors off of every stereotype!" He doesn't exhibit any physical attributes that appear in the feet, hands, heart, hearing or digestion. Not even in growth...because although he's tracking on the "typical" growth charts well enough, he is at the 100% percentile for the DS chart! (for height and weight). Yeah Natie!! oh, and btw...his PDA is gone.