Daniel visited the pediatric cardiologist this afternoon, as a follow-up for the heart murmur that he was born with. At the time of his birth, his pediatrician wasn’t too overly concerned, since a lot of newborns have heart murmurs but then go away. He had an EKG at the hospital, but, back then, it didn’t alarm the good doctor.

At his two month checkup (when he got all of those shots), his pediatrician was surprised enough to hear his heart murmur that she sent in a referral to a pediatric cardiologist, to have his heart echocardiogramed. So that’s what we did today, with me dismissing my class early, rushing to his daycare, picking him up, and going to the office.

He had another EKG done, had his oxygen level checked, his pulse checked, and then the actual echocardiogram. It was a little surreal, feeding Daniel so that he’d be quiet as the radiology tech ran the ultrasound thingy all around his chest. The tech was a talkative one, and the conversation ran to he and his wife’s rather desperate and expensive attempts to have a baby (he’s 38, she’s 36, and they’ve been trying for seven years).

As I said — surreal.

The tech found out what was causing the murmur — a little polyp just above one of the atria. “Very common, very benign. I’d say one out of four adults have this, and it doesn’t impede any physical activity,” he said, pointing out the Daniel’s beating heart on the black-and-white screen. The cardiologist concurred, saying, “Just a harmless little heart murmur. He’ll likely outgrow it. Congratulations!”

YAY!