We got to Riley early and it worked out great! Someone else had not shown up and they were able to get us in an hour early! First we had a great appointment with Dr. Hubbard. We also met Dr. Schamberger. Today at Jacob's appointment they "maximized his pacemaker." It was very interesting.
While Dr. Hubbard checked Jacob's pacemaker, Dr. Schamberger did an echo. We would be amiss if we didn't share the laugh that started this appointment. God creatively put Jacob's heart on the right side; the percentage of people with their hearts on the right is very small. It was just natural for Dr. Schamberger to put the echo wand on the left side of Jacob's chest. Apparently Jacob gave him a funny look when he put the gel on the left side of his chest, and Dr. Schamberger soon discovered why when he saw no heart on the monitor! Dr. Schamberger described the look on Jacob's face as "Got ya!" :) It's not the first time it happened... it won't be the last. Jacob is VERY creatively made!
It was very cool to watch how they did the test to maximize Jacob's pacemaker function. Dr. Hubbard changed settings on the pacemaker that caused a lag in how his two ventricular leads fired. Dr. Schamberger did the test that estimates cardiac output while Dr. Hubbard adjusted the pacemaker. Jacob's ventricular leads are on two sides of the bottom chamber of his heart. They tested up to 80 milliseconds between how they fired. Then they tested with one firing first and then the other firing first. They landed on the best heart function when they fire simultaneously. They are very pleased with how Jacob is doing. Although they said that the best test is all the walking we did yesterday without any shortness of breath. (see the post from this morning!)
Tom hung out with Jocelyn during this appointment. They went and saw the carousel horse by the emergency room and threw coins in, played on the playground, threw money in the "river" in the Riley atrium, and visited the gift shop. Unfortunately I forgot to fill in for Tom's role of taking pictures. So maybe we'll meet Dr. Schamberger another time for a picture. If you look back in the blog, we have various pictures of Dr. Hubbard from the stress test back in early February and other visits.
As we left the cardiopulmonary office area, Jacob and I got to see Lashaunna and Lauren from the metabolic stress test on February 8. It was an unexpected treat to get to see them on this end of our March Riley adventures. Lauren asked if we were gonna come back for another test so Jacob could see the difference in his numbers. I think we'll opt for posting a video for them of Jacob playing basketball with his friends or tennis with Chelsea! If you missed the metabolic stress test photos... go all the way back to the beginning of the Pics tab. Tom captured it well!
Lauren came up to see Jacob just after we got discharged from the first visit this month. Sorry we missed her then but so glad we got to see her today. After Dr. Hubbard saw the results of the metabolic stress test, she told us that it would probably be just a couple of weeks before surgery. Seeing Lashaunna & Lauren today was a sweet way to put a bow on this adventure.
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Lashaunna, Jacob, Lauren and Kristi
Metabolic Stress Test. February 8,2012
After that we were blessed to go have some good laughs with Trina, Tracy, Gin, and Dr. Yancy... but that's for another post because the battery on Jacob's computer is about gone. So come back for more of the story and more photos!
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