You Know You're a Heart Mom When...

I got this list from another heart mom. I have added some things that are in italics. Wow, what a life a mommy lives as a heart mommy.

You know you're a heart mom when....

1) The predictive text on your phone sails through "echocardiogram",
"cardiovascular", "catheter", "venous", "mitral" etc....

2) You're happy when your kid gains 50grams

3) Sats of 80??? Sheesh, s/he's pink!!!—95 is doing great here!

4)You know how to read chest x-rays better than the SHO or registrars
in your local hospital!! this is sooo true!

5) You are on first name terms with your local pharmacist—or in my case, the pharmacy tech knows my car when it pulls up and will ask when this is all going to stop!

6) You can understand and work a sats monitor better than most trained
nurses can

7) You know more medical terms than most medical dictionaries

8) You keep getting asked if you are a nurse when explaining your child's medical history—I have actually had the doctor who did Micah’s last cath and two anesthesiologists think this was the case with me

9) You can work the BP machine better than the nurse in charge—as long as it is an electric one ;)

10) You run through the whole of your child’s medical history from
memory because you've done it so many times before—sad but true

11) At times your kid looks more like a pin cushion than a baby

12) You can tell your dr exactly where he will be able to best hear
your child's heart murmur—the lower left sternum!

13) You think scars are beautiful when the rest of the world seems to
hate them—they truly are beautiful

14) You have more syringes than teaspoons in the kitchen drawer

15) The other children in your family don't bat an eyelid when another
child is sick during dinner time because they are so used to it at home

16) You don't think it is odd to crush tablets and syringe them into
your child in the middle of McDonalds at lunchtime—and then have people stare!

17) You watch any medical drama and shout at them 'you are wrong!'—too many times to count!

18) You keep taking clothes off your baby, because they look
too pink.. so they must be really, really hot

19) You have cried more since having your heart child than you have in
the whole of your life.

20) You feel a bit miffed if your kid's not put in their "usual" room
when admitted to the hospital, again.—or if the girls who answer the phone at the pediatrician’s office do not recognize who we are!

21) You realize the important things in life.—and they do not include the petty things that most complain about, including whether someone gets mad at you for not allowing sick people near your baby, or any number of other insignificant things

22) You are on first name terms with many of your child’s doctors.—oh yes, but I still use Dr. ____!

23) When you look at your special little heart child, you are the
proudest mommy in the whole wide world, no words can explain that feeling.

24) When you attend a non heart related appointment, your
child has by far the biggest file of hospital notes

25) When explaining your child's condition to friends you
get the reply "he will get better though wont he"....."NO"—I hate this because there really is no cure, so there is no real getting better!

26) Your six year old's vocabulary includes the words furosimide,
sprionolactane and captopril (or other such every day terms, and she can
probably spell them better too!)—Micah does not yet, but Noah and Leah sure do!

27) When you find yourself looking through the Argos catalogue for a
sats monitor—or Ebay—already been purchased, so now we own one!

28) Your cutlery rack in the dishwasher is also full of syringes, as
well as your hand bag, car glove box, and bedside draw!

29) Your pediatrician kisses you on both cheeks when you go in for an
appointment.

30) Your pediatrician’s receptionist recognizes your voice - over the phone!

31) When you can't think about anything past the next cardiac check or
surgery!

32) When your child does not get upset or even twitch at the sight of
needles, or injections and bloods being taken - even though you have
been dreading it for days!

33) Your child has the coolest selection of toys - syringes in the
bath for squirting, old MicKey extension as a teether, old pill crushers
as paint pots etc

34) You know the precise calorie content of every food in the super market—SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!!

35) You go to buy a teething ring and find yourself checking the
packets to see which has the highest calorie content !! Again, SO TRUE!

36) You're the only mom who has to worry if their son will get teased
for wearing 'long johns' (aka girls grey tights from Asda) to playschool
'cos it's cold!

37) Your Healthy Heart child presumes your heart child is going to
have his heart fixed everytime you say that he has a dr/ped/cardiologist
appt and wants to know how many days you will be gone

38) When simple common child hood ailments are no longer straight
forward and simple for your child

39) When your 3.5 year old totally amazes you when he proudly states the
correct names of all his medicines and tells you which ones he should
have and at what times—Again Noah!

40) When you have to explain to your 4yr old that the bump on her chest
from open heart surgery is not a 'boobie'!

41) When you never know what tomorrow will bring

42) The most beautiful words can you ever hear a doctor say ...are "
See you in six months. He's fine!" But then you worry that six months is a really long time.

43) Because if you hear the words "yeah but its amazing what they can
do nowadays isnt it, they can fix it can't they?" again you are going to
scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!(which ticks me off everytime now)—I DO SCREAM! And then I try to calm myself down…this irritates me to no end.

44) When words like 'rare' no longer have meaning. Especially when they say there is only a .01% chance of this happening…oh no…please don’t say that!

45) When you've had to stand back and allow others to make your child cry.

46) When you've seen your child look older than you.

47) When seeing your child achieve ordinary milestones makes you cry
with happiness.

48) The list of phone numbers on your mobile phone contain, Cardiac
liason nurse, hospital ward, drs, chemist. And more Doctors phone numbers than you can think of!

49) When your child is famous among co-workers and other staff members
at work

50) When you get annoyed if other non heart kids parents compare their
children and their development with your child(even if its something
really insignificant to them)—or when they complain about minor development things that make no difference…or when they complain about how they are not eating and are HUGE…seriously, are these real issues?

51) When you attend a routine drs appointment and your gp spends more
time asking about your child, even when your there for you and not your
child.(This has happened several times)

52) When you make so many cups of tea the rest of the moms think you
work on the heart ward!

53) When you think how rich you'd be if you had $1 for everyone who
said "well he looks alright"—I think I would be in the billions by now…no one truly knows what alright looks like.

54) When it feels like everyone you meet knows someone’s
auntie/cousin/hairdresser etc, who's "got a hole in their heart and
they're fine now"!!(that is sooooo annoying)

55) When you know that no-one will fight harder, stronger, longer,
dirtier, whatever it takes, to get the best for your baby than you,
because you've already done it!

56) Because there are times when you sit by their bed, watching them
sleep with tears streaming down your face not knowing what the future holds.

57) Because you wake in the middle of the night panicking about your
child and have to check they are okay.

58) Because you've got a damn good excuse to buy that huge chocolate
cake - he needs the cals and I need the comfort !

59) When you read through this list and realize just how much of this
has applied to you now/since you've had a heart-child.

60) When your husband no longer asks you why are you crying when you
come away from the computer. He just knows

61) When you seriously contemplate weaning your baby with doughnuts and
creme eggs to get her to stop loosing weight!!!!—yes, yes, yes

62) When you wake up every morning and realize just how precious all
our children are

63) When you wake at 2am and panic because you forgot to set the alarm
for the midnight captopril/enalapril

64) When you give the furosemide after the health visitor has been to
weigh your baby (is this cheating?!)—also been done!

65) When you consider a chairbed that closely resembles a plank of
wood, to be a total luxury because you are by your childs bed in the
hospital AND you can lie down !!

66) When you don't even bother to say anything when good friends say
'well at least its all over now' and bite your tounge rather than hit
them!

67) When you sit back and realize from now on this is normal - but you
are still grateful!

68) When you see your child lying in a hospital bed and they still
give you the best smile in the world, it just melts your heart

69) When the second you open your eyes each morning you check to see
if child is still breathing (even before you go to the bathroom)

70) When you pray every night for just one more day with your child

71) When your fridge is full of whole milk yogurts, heavy whipping cream, butter and puddings

72) When your child knows exactly what to do with a toy stethoscope
and he’s not even 2 yet.

73) When you go to an ordinary toddler group and are so thankful just to
be able to be there with your little person, and wonder what all the
other parents having big discussions about their little people are
worrying about (and feel bad for thinking that because it used to be
you, and their concerns really are valid!).

74) When you recognize and chat with nurses from heart wards when they
off duty doing their shopping.

75) Captopril/Enalapril and the obtaining it has reduced you to tears in the chemist—simply just trying to find a compounding pharmacy that can make the much needed medicine

76) You are so so proud of your child and breathing seems a miracle

77) We class a total stranger, ie surgeon, as "G-d" as he's worked
miracles on our children.

78) When you mention the hospitals name and every one jumps

79) When going anywhere you are more likely to forget your child than
the captopril/enalapril

80) When who you would consider to be your dearest friend lives over 300
miles away, you have never met them, but they know everything about you,
when you are blue, and when you have some good news to share... and
that's all before you have uttered more than 2 words...—this is so true of my new blogger friends.

81) Having purell in my purse, car, keychains, diaper bags…everywhere trying to get the germs away.

82) Still nursing a 19 month old because that way you know he will not dehydrate since he refuses to drink anything else.

83) Showing up at the pediatrician’s office and the girl’s getting the chart out for any of the three kids before even signing in, since they know who I am so well…

84) When I tell the nurse or phlebotomist not to worry, he turns blue every time, but he will breathe again eventually

85) When your 5 year old runs to the phone to call 911 because his baby brother is crying and turning blue

86) Noticing how puffy your child’s eyes get when he is retaining fluid and then watching it go away after the Lasix.

87) Knowing exactly how fast, too fast is when your baby is breathing.

88) Praying that your baby will eat more than 300 calories today.