Good day in Boston!

We had a good day in Boston today, thank goodness! We began, again, with an ultrasound at Brigham & Women's. As soon as the tech put a close-up of Annie's heart on the screen, I got Scott's attention (he was keeping Jamie entertained) because it looked so different to me from the last time. It was definitely less bright (the brighter it is, the more dense the tissue is) to our untrained eyes. You could still see some brightness down the heart's septum, but it definitely seemed less obvious than our last look.

We had a new radiologist this time, and he asked us to tell him what had been diagnosed and what the cardiologists had to say at the last visit. He was a character, but had good things to tell us. He said that if he were seeing us at B&W for the first time with no history of any trouble, he would not be "impressed" by this presentation. I told him we were more than happy not to impress him! We discussed the fact that it looked much less bright and less comprehensive (not involving the entire ventricle in a complete circle of bright white/thickened tissue) to us. He deferred to the echo we had scheduled later in the day, but said that he really wouldn't be concerned about what he was seeing. He also said that from his point of view, the heart function looked great. They also checked for growth and development in general, estimating Annie to be about 2 lbs. 6 oz. right now.

We went straight from B&W to Children's and met with the cardiologist, Dr. Levine. We told her the news from the morning so she was anxious to get a look at Annie herself. On the way to the echo room, she told us that she had just seen the 'baby' that was the only case she had ever had with anything like Annie's presentation. She had wanted to look up his echoes, but had been unable to remember his name. Lo and behold, he showed up in the clinic for his annual appointment a week after she met us! He's not a baby anymore -- he's five years old -- something I had been wondering about. (We had no idea how long ago this case had been, so we had no idea how long the child had been followed and deemed healthy.) Dr. Levine said that his heart does not show any thickening at all at this point -- and continues to function perfectly -- so that was even more good news.

The echo was quick this time since Dr. Levine had just seen us 2 1/2 weeks ago. Annie was in a completely different position, but still had a hand in front of her heart. Still, she has grown so much that the size alone helped out. Dr. Levine agreed that the thickening appeared much less comprehensive than it had at the last echo. She was able to confirm her suspicion that the thickening does not appear to be in the endocardium but more in the outer lining of the heart, so she's still saying it's not EFE. The thickening is definitely most evident in the septum, but the diminished nature of it in general made her even more positive about Annie's prognosis. She told us that she knew she had told us she felt 50/50 like this would turn out to be nothing to worry about, and today she said she would raise that to 70/30. YEAH!!!!!!

We talked a little bit about the positive blood test for coxsackie virus as well. She said that the retest they did this morning at B&W would help them determine if I had been exposed to the virus during my pregnancy. They know that the virus can cause cardiac abnormalities in fetal hearts, so if I have been exposed she could make a reasonable assumption that the virus caused something to happen with the development of Annie's heart. We'll never know for sure, of course, but it's the most likely culprit at this point. (She even told me that the virus can cause so much damage in children's hearts that they require transplants. I had no idea the virus could be that severe.)

So, we're headed in the right direction. We're happy the radiologist this morning wasn't impressed by anything he saw (!!), and we were definitely given reason to think positively by the cardiologist this afternoon. It was a good day! Thank you, everyone, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers today. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue delivering good news and one day close the blog out with Annie's first photos!