2001 Appointment - 6 Month Checkup
Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA; 5 March 2001 at 10:30 am -- Dr. Michael Portman

Emma - Summer 2000

Since her last appointment, Emma had faithfully taking a her daily dose of Enalapril. She missed only five doses in six months. Emma had a short bout in January 2001 of getting "the shakes" after heavy physical activity. On these occasions, Emma would simply eat something and then she would be better. Emma went to see her pediatrician, Dr. Sarah Murdoch. Dr. Murdoch thought it might be just a growth spurt. Emma's shakes subsided right after that.

This appointment was a six month checkup after the last appointment in September 2000. At that time, Dr. Portman put Emma on 2.5 mg of Enalapril. We arrived at Children's Hospital and took the Whale elevator from the 6th floor (at street level) down to the 4th floor Heart Center. No sooner had we signed in than we called in. Emma had her echocardiogram first. These take a while because of the thoroughness required. Emma watches Peter Pan while it was done. 40 minutes later, she was off to the x-ray lab to get a couple chest films done. That took about 15 minutes. After that, Emma went back to the Heart Center. She waited in the doctor's office for Dr. Portman. Emma had an EKG while she waited. Dr. Portman came in shortly after. He examined Emma and said, "Emma seems to be doing well. She is very stable. Do you have any questions?" I said that if his news had gone the other way, I would have had lots of questions.

Dr. Portman increased Emma's dosage of Enalapril to 5 mg. He said she simply seems to be outgrowing the current dosage. Dr. Portman said that everything's fairly good and stable, "I'll see you again next year." Now we go back to annual visits. All of this comes as a pleasant surprise to us. We were preparing ourselves for Dr. Portman to say she needed surgery pretty soon. Hopefully, I won't be updating this web page for another year.