Followup appointment

I know I have not posted in a while, my patients and my family have been keeping me busy! Matthew had his followup appointment with his cardiologist today. Matthew's cath results had been reviewed in Pediatric Cardiology conference and while they did not feel the pressure in his aorta was high enough to warrant the risk of a stent at this point, the pressure in his left ventricle is too high (18, should be 10 or lower) so they want to put him on medicine to reduce the pressure on his heart. Apparently, the blood vessels in the heart muscle of children with his condition are much "stiffer" that normal and put pressure on the walls of the heart. It also raises the blood pressure. The medicine is to relax the heart muscle and diminish the pressure.

He was encouraged to do aerobic exercise to keep the heart muscle strong so his basketball that he loves will be great for him! He can't do any weight lifting or isometrics since that will increase the pressure. The main side effect of the medication is fatigue so if you are around him and notice something, that is probably what you are seeing. I will be home with him his first three days on it to observe him closely this weekend, and I would appreciate any feedback or observations from those of you who are around him to help me monitor him. He won't complain about anything, so we will just have to go by our instincts.

He is as usual very positive, just smiles and agrees to do whatever the doc says. Thank you all so much for lifting him up!