Yesterday afternoon we got a call from PCMC letting us know that Ashton needed a “holster” and asked where we would like them to send the order. So I checked with Shanna to see where I should have them send the order. We had a choice of somewhere in Idaho Falls or going to Pocatello. Since Shanna works at EIRMC (the hospital here in Idaho Falls) she told me that they like to do as much there as possible. So I had the order sent there…oh… and what is a holster? It’s a heart monitor that we need to leave on Ashton for 24 hours. Oh…OK. Well we had to wait until tonight for them to get one back that they could check out to us for Ashton. So the nurse gets him wired up with 7 leads on this monitor. This part he has done several times with an EKG, however when the nurse left and didn’t take the stickers off of him he was wondering where she was going. He’s used to getting the stickers off right after getting them put on. Then we told him that he had to wear it home and that we would bring in back tomorrow. He really has been pretty good about it. The only problem we’ve had is that he was snapping the leads off and on just playing with them. So I called Primary’s and told them what was happening and the cardiologist on call asked how old Ashton is and when I told him 4 yrs he just said “oh”. Then he suggested using a rewards system to encourage him to keep it on. So we have bribed him a little and it is working. I have the wires strapped down with an ace bandage and a couple of shirts to help keep him from playing with them but there is the actual monitor that is huge on a 4 year old. I asked him to carry it so that it didn’t fall on the floor. He came to me and told me the he beat the boss and was on the next level. He was pretending it was a game boy. I hope he beats the game as long as he doesn’t really push any buttons. I think they are locked anyway but just in case.
That’s our excitement for the day. It makes us a little nervous with this being a last minute unexpected test. Then when I talked to the on call cardiologist this evening he asked if anyone had mentioned a pacemaker and I said no. His response was oh…Ok. So hopefully things don’t get crazy before we even get started. Any parent with a heart child knows what it’s like.
