The scary kind of innocent
Isaac's 3-year checkup was today. For the most part, he was fantastic, really into it, and cooperative. He stepped up on the scale all by himself (where we found he weighed 33 or 34 pounds, about the 60th percentile), and he also stood up tall and still so the nurse could measure his height (37 inches, also about the 60th percentile). Dr. M checked his ears, his heart, and his lungs. New this year: she checked his reflexes by hitting his knee with the hammer; she made him bend down and touch his toes so she could check the curvature of his spine; she asked him to jump for her and draw her a circle. All of these things he did, and everything checked out completely perfect in everyway. Except for one thing.
While listening to his heart, she hovered over his chest for a long time. It was long enough for me to start worrying, long enough that I almost asked her if his ape-heart transplant was throwing her off. When she stepped back I asked if everything sounded okay. "He has a heart murmur," she said, "an innocent one. It could just be the sound of blood rushing through." And then she went on her checking way, as though it was the most normal thing in the world to tell a mother that her three-year-old has a heart murmur. She was so casual about it that I felt I should bring it up again. "Can you tell me more about this potential heart murmur here?" I began. "Oh, there's no 'potential'," she said. "He definitely has a heart murmur. It's not a problem, but we'll keep an eye out for it at his 4-year appointment."
After that, her mouth kept moving. I knew she was still talking, but my mind had already switched gears into Mommy Fantasy Mode, wherein I imagined him at 6 years old, gasping for breath on the sidelines of a soccer game, or in a few weeks from now, on a cardiologist's operating table. Occasionally I may have heard such snippets as "normal" and more "innocent" and "may resolve on its own", but none of that made sense, and I really couldn't tell you for sure that she said any of that crap. She could have been telling me that she was just kidding and that in fact I had won the lottery! and I wouldn't have heard her. I told myself not to cry, and I didn't, and for that I deserve to eat all the Easter candy I am downing right now.
The rest of the check-up was uneventful -- I briefly brought up his picky-eating disorder, and got reminders from Dr. M about locking up the meds since Isaac's now old enough to understand that dragging a chair over to the cabinet makes him the tallest guy ever.
We left the doctor's office for home and, when the babies raced to Isaac's room to play, I followed them with my laptop and asked Dr. Google to help me fill in all the stuff I didn't hear when my brain shut down after the word "murmur". Dr. Google told me to calm my junk down, because apparently an innocent heart murmur really isn't that big of a deal. I will quote you from some resources I found:
"Heart murmurs is a common finding on routine examination of infants and children. 50% of normal children have an innocent heart murmur." -- Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Chicago
"Heart murmurs usually don't mean there is anything wrong with your child's heart. Your doctor may call these murmurs "innocent" or "functional." An innocent murmur is just a noise caused by blood flowing through a normal heart. These noises are commonly heard in children because their hearts are very close to their chest walls. An innocent murmur can get louder or softer depending on your child's heart rate, such as when they're excited or scared. Doctors often hear heart murmurs when they check children who have a fever. Many innocent murmurs become hard to hear as children grow older and most usually go away on their own." -- familydoctor.org
"Kids with innocent heart murmurs don't require a special diet, restriction of activities, or any other special treatment. Those old enough to understand that they have a heart murmur should be reassured that they aren't any different from other kids." -- kidshealth.org
"Most of the time a murmur is INNOCENT, caused by the sound of blood flowing through the chambers of the heart or the arteries coming out of the heart. The heart structures themselves are NORMAL. You might compare this to when you turn on a faucet and hear water running through the pipes in the wall. There is nothing wrong with the pipes, its just that as the water flows through them you hear a noise. It is the same thing with the heart. The blood has to make several hair-pin turns as it goes through the heart and out to the lungs and this can create some turbulence. Sometimes the sound or murmur may change in quality when the child changes position or turns his neck." -- Carson & Appleton, M.D.
As much as I dislike hearing that anything at all is wrong with my obviously healthy child... well, there may really be nothing wrong at all. Thanks for freaking me out, stupid mommy brain.
After I learned all this, we went to the park with AnthonyCarlos. There, I learned that AnthonyCarlos's perfectly healthy grandma was diagnosed with a heart murmur when she was little, and it resolved on its own when she was a teenager. Meanwhile, all three boys, including the one with the murmur, ran full-speed up and down hills, climbed all over tables and play structures, pretended there were monsters in trees, and built sand castles in the horseshoe pits. No one complained of shortness of breath or turned blue in any way. So, as scary as "murmur" sounds, I will try to remember in the future that the "innocent" part comes first.
While listening to his heart, she hovered over his chest for a long time. It was long enough for me to start worrying, long enough that I almost asked her if his ape-heart transplant was throwing her off. When she stepped back I asked if everything sounded okay. "He has a heart murmur," she said, "an innocent one. It could just be the sound of blood rushing through." And then she went on her checking way, as though it was the most normal thing in the world to tell a mother that her three-year-old has a heart murmur. She was so casual about it that I felt I should bring it up again. "Can you tell me more about this potential heart murmur here?" I began. "Oh, there's no 'potential'," she said. "He definitely has a heart murmur. It's not a problem, but we'll keep an eye out for it at his 4-year appointment."
After that, her mouth kept moving. I knew she was still talking, but my mind had already switched gears into Mommy Fantasy Mode, wherein I imagined him at 6 years old, gasping for breath on the sidelines of a soccer game, or in a few weeks from now, on a cardiologist's operating table. Occasionally I may have heard such snippets as "normal" and more "innocent" and "may resolve on its own", but none of that made sense, and I really couldn't tell you for sure that she said any of that crap. She could have been telling me that she was just kidding and that in fact I had won the lottery! and I wouldn't have heard her. I told myself not to cry, and I didn't, and for that I deserve to eat all the Easter candy I am downing right now.
The rest of the check-up was uneventful -- I briefly brought up his picky-eating disorder, and got reminders from Dr. M about locking up the meds since Isaac's now old enough to understand that dragging a chair over to the cabinet makes him the tallest guy ever.
We left the doctor's office for home and, when the babies raced to Isaac's room to play, I followed them with my laptop and asked Dr. Google to help me fill in all the stuff I didn't hear when my brain shut down after the word "murmur". Dr. Google told me to calm my junk down, because apparently an innocent heart murmur really isn't that big of a deal. I will quote you from some resources I found:
"Heart murmurs is a common finding on routine examination of infants and children. 50% of normal children have an innocent heart murmur." -- Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Chicago
"Heart murmurs usually don't mean there is anything wrong with your child's heart. Your doctor may call these murmurs "innocent" or "functional." An innocent murmur is just a noise caused by blood flowing through a normal heart. These noises are commonly heard in children because their hearts are very close to their chest walls. An innocent murmur can get louder or softer depending on your child's heart rate, such as when they're excited or scared. Doctors often hear heart murmurs when they check children who have a fever. Many innocent murmurs become hard to hear as children grow older and most usually go away on their own." -- familydoctor.org
"Kids with innocent heart murmurs don't require a special diet, restriction of activities, or any other special treatment. Those old enough to understand that they have a heart murmur should be reassured that they aren't any different from other kids." -- kidshealth.org
"Most of the time a murmur is INNOCENT, caused by the sound of blood flowing through the chambers of the heart or the arteries coming out of the heart. The heart structures themselves are NORMAL. You might compare this to when you turn on a faucet and hear water running through the pipes in the wall. There is nothing wrong with the pipes, its just that as the water flows through them you hear a noise. It is the same thing with the heart. The blood has to make several hair-pin turns as it goes through the heart and out to the lungs and this can create some turbulence. Sometimes the sound or murmur may change in quality when the child changes position or turns his neck." -- Carson & Appleton, M.D.
As much as I dislike hearing that anything at all is wrong with my obviously healthy child... well, there may really be nothing wrong at all. Thanks for freaking me out, stupid mommy brain.
After I learned all this, we went to the park with AnthonyCarlos. There, I learned that AnthonyCarlos's perfectly healthy grandma was diagnosed with a heart murmur when she was little, and it resolved on its own when she was a teenager. Meanwhile, all three boys, including the one with the murmur, ran full-speed up and down hills, climbed all over tables and play structures, pretended there were monsters in trees, and built sand castles in the horseshoe pits. No one complained of shortness of breath or turned blue in any way. So, as scary as "murmur" sounds, I will try to remember in the future that the "innocent" part comes first.
posted by Claire at 2:26 PM
4 Comments:
No worries! When I told Chris "Isaac has a heart murmur", his first two comments were 1) I have a heart murmur and 2) it's probably an innocent one...and at that point I read him the rest of the blog where the MD said it was an innocent one. So I think she should have rephrased her comment to say..."oh, I hear blood rushing in your young child's heart" rather than "I hear a heart murmur"...geesh, don't these MDs know how Mommy brains work? :)
I have one too - can we start a club? It's never changed and never caused me any ANY problems. NEVER. And I played sports and a wind instrument all through high school. Now that I'm fat and preggo I'm panting after a flight of stairs - but I *think* it might be from the ice cream I ate last night - not my heart.
Claire,
My Mom has one too. She's all good at 58. :)
My mom too! And our cat! ;)
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