March 6, 2007

I'm still a little bit in shock that it went so well. Jakob had his appointment at the cardiologist yesterday. (I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Jakob was born with a hole in his heart. The doctors have been telling us since his birth that it was a very small hole that would probably close on its own. We never worried too much about it since we were told that even if it didn't close, it wouldn't create any problems for him.) We were dreading this appointment, fully expecting Jakob to be uncooperative. As always, I planned and I was hopeful and Jakob was PERFECT. He let the nurse take his blood pressure and use the stethoscope. And then, he let us strip him down to his underwear, put electrodes all over him and he laid still while they did the EKG.

Unreal...not the same kid I was living with a year ago. Now granted, so much of that has to do with what we've figured out about Jakob. What works and what doesn't. First, it has to be made a game and it's gotta be fun. He loves to be told that he's doing a good job so he needs to be told that every step of the way. No such thing as too much praise for this kid. The best trick I've learned is using a countdown. If he knows how much longer he has to sit still or lay down, he's more tolerant. This is how we do haircuts and get him out of the tub. I start the countdown (usually at 30) and if I start to go too slow, he'll let me know. Sometimes, he even takes over the counting on his own. But he seems to be so focused on the numbers that he tolerates whatever it is we're doing to him. It's a great trick and I use it as much as possible.

It was great news at the end, it appears the hole is closed and we no longer have to be concerned about it. I like that...something NOT to be concerned about.

Now we just have to get thru the 24-hour ambulatory EEG next Monday. I wonder what number I'll have to start counting back from to make the countdown last 24 hours...