Heart Mermaid

When I was little, maybe six or seven, I had to have an ultrasound on my heart.

I have no idea why or what triggered that move, but I do kind of remember the cold of the jelly on my chest and the weird black and white image on the screen.

What I definitely remember, is the ultrasound image I got to keep.

I took that picture of my heart–which, by the way just looked like a white blob in a sea of black, and I’m pretty sure I thought the whole image was my heart not just the blob–everywhere. I showed it to everyone.

When show and tell came around, I was ready. That image was in rotation for many a show.

I proudly told everyone, “I have a heart mermaid!”

“Ooooh” and “aaaaah” my fellow 1st graders would respond. “Wow!”

Yep, pretty cool. That heart mermaid is just swimming around in there, I thought.

And that was it. That was all I knew. I didn’t realize it was a heart murmur and not actually a good thing. I didn’t know where my heart was in the ultrasound picture. I didn’t know that it wasn’t really all that exciting.

Thankfully, I grew out of it (not that I knew I had it), and it wasn’t until years later I thought of that image and my mom explained what the real deal was.

For some reason that just popped in my head today, so rather than talking about the quarantine, I thought I’d share. 🙂