Six weeks on and we were back at The Brompton for Harrison's first check up following the valve replacement.
He started the afternoon in the Echo department having a thorough scan of his whole heart. The Echocardiographer took a combination of still and moving images together with some audio. We haven't seen the report but everything appears to be working well.
Next stop was the x-ray department. No sooner had we checked in and sat down in the waiting area, Harrison was called in. The door to the x-ray room closed and almost immediately opened again. Harrison walked out grinning. He was surprised that he didn't even need to take his jumper off! The electronic systems meant that we didn't need to hang around for the processing of the images. They had already been added to Harrison's electronic notes. Below is the image taken through his jumper and t-shirt. The new pulmonary valve is the white ring in the mesh cylinder towards the right hand side of the image. In case we needed proof that something was actually done on 24th January! We've never seen his other stents show up as vividly on x-rays before!
Just a blood pressure check, physical examination and discussion with the Clinical Nurse Specialist to go. Harrison's blood pressure remains low so I've decided that I ought to keep a record of the readings because I can never remember what they are and how low is the lowest. He's always asked if he feels dizzy but I'm not sure whether he actually knows what dizzy feels like if he's used to having such low blood pressure.
Apart from the ongoing blood pressure problem, there were no concerns and the wound site has now healed well.
Harrison will be back in September for his next check up and an appointment with his consultant. Around this time next year he will be subjected to a full set of tests including exercise tolerance. This will give the cardiologists a clear picture of how well the valve is functioning one year on. By then it will have had a year to settle down and the rest of the heart will have made any readjustments.
The following day we were returning to attend the respiratory clinic. One of the tests prior to seeing the respiratory consultant is a blood gas where a cut is made in Harrison's ear to collect a tiny tube of blood. Nobody that I know looks forward to any type of blood test and Harrison is clearly no exception! He spotted some anesthetic spray on the nurses desk and asked if he could borrow it for the next day. She would have gladly given it to him but unfortunately couldn't as it contains a drug. We photographed it to see whether we could get Harrison a can either on prescription or from our pharmacy. In the meantime, he survived the blood test with some Deep Heat cream to act as a pain reliever and to stimulate the blood flow!
Given that the respiratory clinic coincided with Pancake Day, we couldn't leave Chelsea without popping in to Harrison's favourite restaurant; My Old Dutch pancake house. We'd been warned that it would be busy so although it was only 4:30pm we thought we'd better get there as soon as we could. There was already a queue outside the restaurant but we didn't have to wait too long. We were there for two hours in total. The queues were relentless but the manager did an amazing job ensuring that all of his customers were seated and served as quickly as possible. As you can see from the photos, Harrison enjoyed his meal!
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