All Heart

When Henry was born he had a small heart defect. It is very common, called a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Along with all of the emotions of having a new baby, a first born, came the stress of being told, "we need to follow up of this quickly...your child may be in congestive heart failure". This took us by surprise and scared both of us. So, we left the hospital pretty much AMA in order to follow up on this as soon as possible.
Where we live there is no pediatric cardiologist. We had an ECHO (ultrasound of the heart) done and is was sent to Sacramento to be read. After a couple of weeks we saw Dr. Monohar (see picture) who works for Sutter and travels around to evaluate children in outlying areas. He is the nicest man and has the best bedside manner. I would recommend anyone to him and plan to refer patients to him if the need ever arises.
He told us it was benign and that most of these will close by age two. We agreed to follow up when Henry was 2 years old to see what the status was. If the defect was still present then he would need a dose of antibiotics prior to dental care or any surgical procedure due to the risk of getting an endocarditis.
On Friday we saw Dr. Monohar and he gave Henry a glowing report. No defect was present and there wasn't even the typical innocent murmur common in childhood. I thought to myself that this is the best Mother's Day present I could ask for.