Welcome to the life of a special needs baby

This has been one of those crazy busy weeks.  Between the two boys we have had appointments everyday this week.  Today we saw our WONDERFUL Cardiologist, Dr. Raunikar.  

Having a preemie and/or special needs child makes you quiet accustomed to tests and scans.  Initially, all of these tests and scans sounded awful.  I had no idea how all these tests work.  That brought a lot of fear with it, so today I thought I would enlighten those of you who may potentially deal with these tests.

Today we had an echo cardiogram and an EKG.  

The echo is basically an ultra sound of the heart.  A lead (a sticker with a wire attached) is placed on each side of the chest and the technician uses the probe and jelly to see the heart.  Brinkley has probably had close to 20 echos by now.  He has had so many that he generally doesn't get upset anymore.  Today he even smiled at the tech and "talked" to me through the procedure.  

The EKG bothers Brinkley much more than the echo and it is a little more difficult for the nurse.  Numerous little stickers are placed all over the front of the body.  Wires with clips are attached to the stickers.  The wires run to a computer that is monitoring certain activities of the heart.  The hard part is keeping the child still.  If they squirm the wires easily fall off the stickers.  Brinkley HATES this one.  He does not like the stickers.  He doesn't like them going on and he certainly doesn't like them coming off.  

Even with all of this going on this is how we left the doctors office:

He was quite content and ready to eat after spending nearly two hours at the Children's Hospital Outpatient Clinic.  We'll be heading back tomorrow to return the heart monitor that they sent us home with.  We'll also be getting a chest x-ray.  These are all to set new baselines for Brinkley following his surgery.  For now we'll be returning pretty regularly to Dr Raunikar, as well as all the other doctors.  Next week we only have one appointment, but the following week we have seven!  Such is the life of a special needs mom.