Our visit to the cardiologist

Well today was Adam's appointment with the cardiologist in Des Moines. He had to have an EKG and also an echocardiogram done. After reviewing the results of the tests he talked with us. One thing the test showed was that Adam's aorta was slightly larger than normal. Normal is 1.25 to 1.50 inches and his measured 1.75. The doctor was not sure why it is slightly enlarged, but said it could be due to the high blood pressure Adam had been experiencing the last 3 months. He decided that he would have Adam go off of the blood pressure medication and see what happens over the next month. Adam has to have his blood pressure taken 2 or 3 times a week to make sure that it is within normal range. The doctor is not 100% sure what is causing Adam's shortness of breath and rapid heart rate. We came home with a heart monitor that Adam will wear for one month. If he feels a spell coming on he pushes a button on the monitor and it will record the episode. After that Adam calls into a place called Life Watch and speaks with a representative who will have him place the heart monitor next to the receiver of the phone and play back what he recorded. The recording will tell Life Watch what happened and then Life Watch will notify our doctor in Des Moines. They in turn will contact us if there is anything that we need to be concerned about right away. Otherwise, we will go back in a month and get the results of all the episodes from the doctor. Adam will also have a stress test done at that time. The two things that the doctor is leaning towards are Marfan's Syndrome or else Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome (WPW). He explained what he thinks is occuring when Adam has a spell like this: the state of Iowa has I35 running north and south and I80 running east and west. The interstates are like the veins and arteries moving the blood through the body starting up north in Mason City and travelling down I35. When the blood reaches the heart (where I35 and I80 meet - Des Moines) it should slow down like you would when driving through a city. Then the blood is pumped out and would continue to travel south on I35 to Lamoni. Instead of continuing to go south Adam's blood is circling inside his heart at a rapid speed (thus the spells of shortness of breath and the racing heart rate). The monitor will tell us what is happening for sure and then we can go from there. When we got home I started looking through my text books for my college classes that I am taking online and we found the two things the doctor was talking about and can do some research on our own. So, we will keep you posted as we know more, but it will probably be a month before we do.

Take care,
Steph and family