Back at Our Home Away from Home

This morning Lynnea had an echocardiogram and appointment with her cardiologist, Dr. Gruenstein. After looking at her echo results, Dr. Gruenstein "didn't like what he saw" and decided to admit us to the hospital again to run a few more tests. Lynnea had a chest X-ray, an EKG, and some lab work done. During afternoon rounds, there was some debate about whether, or not, Lynnea's echo really showed a decline in heart function, and increase in her tricuspid valve regurgitation (this is not a new problem, and often varies in severity, which is generally a pretty good indicator of early heart failure for her). Dr. Pyles, the attending cardiologist this week, and Dr. Bass, head of the cardiology department disagree on the echo results, but the both feel that her EKG from today actually looked a little bit better than the last EKG that she had done. Her lab work showed that her hemoglobin is higher than normal (her levels always run a little on the high side, but today's results were high even for her) which the doctors can't explain. It also showed that her triponin levels were normal, which is a sign that she is not in heart failure. She had more labs drawn this evening, again to check her triponin levels, just to make sure that the earlier results were accurate. I haven't heard the results of her chest X-ray. For now, the plan is to keep her here overnight to continue to monitor her, and if she seems to be remaining stable, and doesn't have any unforeseen issues, they might discharge her tomorrow.