Two hospitalizations down, One to go

Today was Noah's heart catheter procedure. We left for Charleston Tuesday night and got up early to be at MUSC at 6:00am. We gave him a heads-up before we left. We thought we would have a hard time getting him here (especially since we didn't bring Isabel), but he did not seem worried at all. He walked into the hospital with no problems. We were happy to hear we were NOT bumped and were still first case. Noah was taken back for the cath around 8am and finished up about 11am. The procedure consisted of measuring his heart pressures, oxygenation, and testing to see if his heart would tolerate closing the fenestration. Before Noah was taken back to the cath lab, his oxygen saturations were 93%. This surprised us because his last cardiology visit and prior visits they were 85ish. Closing the fenestration would allow his O2 sats to be in the upper 90s. When we saw that his O2 sats had jumped to the 90s, we were hoping the fenestration had started to close on its own. After talking with the doctor, she said it had begin to close and when they tested the fenestration his heart was not ready to be closed off. She recommended to give it another year and see if the fenestration would completely close on its own. This was good news and bad news to us. We are happy that he doesn't have to have another artifical device in his body, but now we have the possible 'doing this again next year' lurking. The doctor also noted that the pressures in his body were great, better than last year right after the Fontan surgery, and his oxygenation was 95% when measured internally. She saw a few newly formed blood vessels (colateral blood vessels) that were small that they would monitor. It was nothing that needed to be addressed, but could bring his O2 sats down if they got any bigger. Overall, the doctor was very pleased. We will be discharged today. They just want to observe Noah a little longer. He is currently eating fishsticks, french fries and a brownie. Not the healthiest choices, but this is what made him happy. He has a new Buzz Lightyear race car in hand, watching Lightening McQueen on DVD and itching to go home. We are so glad we can get home tonight so that we can be home for Isabel's birthday tomorrow.

Speaking of Isabel, she was our first hospitalization. She had her tonsils and adenoids taken out on July 13th. It was a sudden decision we made. She had always been a heavy mouth breather at night and her tonsils had been very big. We made the appointment with the ENT doctor and he right away recommended her tonsils and adenoids to be removed. Within 2 weeks, we had a surgery date. We were glad it didn't fall during Noah's scheduled heart cath and also during school. We prepared her by letting her talk to one of her good friends who had her tonsils out which eased alot of her questions. I took her to pick out new pajamas to wear to the hospital and she also picked out her own ice cream. The day of surgery she did very well. The surgery took only 20 minutes. After a few hours of recovery, we were discharged. The first two days she was doing exceptionally well, eating soft foods around the clock and playing, then the next few days she was a little more uncomfortable. It was harder to get her to eat, even ice cream. But she made it through and is back to normal.


The last hospitalization will be John's shoulder surgery in August. He has had off and on shoulder pain for the last 2 years. He's been under doctor's care for the past year and the final option is to have surgery. I will post more details later. For now, I need to focus on getting my kids back to normal from their procedures. So far the road to recovery seems to be going well.