Whish-BUMP! Whish-BUMP!

At Emilyn's checkup yesterday, her doctor detected a heart murmur.

The patient and I knew something was up, because Dr. Garriga was spending way too much time with the stethoscope phase of her exam. Listen left, listen right. Listen sitting, listen standing. Listen lying down.

A while later, the doctor took off the stethoscope and announced the heart murmur. Emilyn burst into tears. But Dr. Garriga was quick to assure her that she wouldn't even talk about it in front of a little girl unless it was nothing to worry about. "Do you hear me, sweetie?" she said. "It's nothing to worry about."

That's what she was doing with all that listening: Determining that it was not the kind of heart murmur that's serious in children. That kind gets louder when the child is standing. Emilyn's is almost impossible to hear when she's standing, Dr. Garriga said.

She said she heard a "whish-BUMP, whish-BUMP." It could be stress (Emilyn was worried about the visit) or just a sign of a very strong heart. Maybe it's both!

I mentioned that I thought Daddy had had a heart murmur, too, and it turns out that's true. It wasn't even enough to get him disqualified for a pilots license.

So, we wrapped up the visit with a chickenpox booster shot (which didn't hurt much at all, Emilyn reports). Then she and I headed to the movies, to see "Kung Fu Panda." The patient had Milk Duds and a white cherry Icee for her trouble. I know Dr. Garriga wouldn't mind. Dr. Dunagan, our dentist...? Well, that'd be another story!