Heart Cath Done

So we made it down to Charleston/MUSC. The night before we were able to take Noah around town. It was chilly and the streets were not busy with people like we are used to. We had fun and glad Noah got to see a few things. He especially enjoyed going over the Cooper River Bridge and seeing the water. He kept asking to see more water even at the hospital. So the day of his heart catheter, we got to MUSC at 7 am. We were told we were 2nd case, so we had to wait for the first patient to finish up. We got through all the other tests pretty quickly like his echo, ekg, blood pressure and oxygen saturation readings. He did wonderful. The nurses were so impressed how good he did. I guess they normally have to put up with two year olds kicking and screaming, but not Noah. He soared through all the tests!! We were prepared when it was time for his echo. To have an echo, you have to be really still while the technician puts jelly on a wand and runs it over your chest while you are laying down. Well, we know how to put Noah in a trance....we brought along his Cars movie and he layed still and watched that.

Well, we finished up with testing and spoke with the anesthesiologist and doctors around 10 am and were hoping we would be seen soon, but it ended up being another 2 hours before Noah was taken back. During this time, Noah was getting antsy and what made it worse was that he had not eaten since 9 o'clock the night before, so the whole time he was telling me he was hungry. That part really hurt me the most because he doesn't understand why he can't eat. Around 11:30, they gave Noah some "happy juice" to make him drowsy. He was pretty funny when the medicine set in. At noon, the nurses took him back and started the procedure. It took 3 hours. We were given a pager and they updated us every 30 mins to an hour of what was being done and how he was doing. He was brought back to us right at 3pm. The doctors were very pleased with all the pressures in his heart and how well he was doing. They confirmed that everything looked well enough to move forward with surgery soon.

When he was waking up from the anesthesia, he was fussy and in a confused state. They had to give him some morphine for the pain and also to prevent him from sitting up. The doctors ran a catheter through his artery in his groin and neck during the procedure. He needed to lay still for a while to keep the pressure off. Around 4:30 he was able to sit up which made him much happier. He sat up in my lap for a while and was able to hold down apple juice. He was pretty thirsty. He also finally got to eat and nibbled on a few snacks. At this time he also realized that he had an IV line in his hand with an arm board to protect it. He did not like his hand being restricted. Once he got use to all the wires he was hooked up to, he colored and watched TV. The nurses just wanted to monitor his blood pressure, oxygen sats and also let the anesthesia wear off a little more. We were able to leave MUSC at 7 pm and drove home last night. Noah slept all the way home and had a great night sleep. He will stay home from school the rest of the week just so that he can take it easy.

So now we will be hearing from the surgeon's secretary soon to set up a surgery date. It will pretty much be up to us and what are schedules are like. So I aniticipate in the next 3 months. We will definitely post the date when it is set. Here are a few pics from our visit.


Out and about in Charleston

Patiently waiting our turn. Hey, that hospital gown could use a monogram!!!

Trying to cope with one hand.