Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wrapping up heart cath #8

Elijah did great today! Dr. G ballooned three different parts of his pulmonary arteries, and was pleased with the outcome. He considered adding a stent to his left pulmonary artery, but it would have been in a weird spot so decided to balloon instead.

E's valve is functioning perfectly (yay!) and his pressures are good. We will need to go back to see Dr. G in 4 months, and probably have another cath in a year.

The anesthesiologist took some croup precautions, so his post-extubation croup was pretty mild. He got an epi neb and after that he sounded a ton better. He threw up about 30 minutes into recovery, so the nurse gave him anti-nauseau medication. He seems to be feeling much better now! He just gobbled down an orange popsicle and is playing on his little computer while watching Cars 2.

If all continues to go well, he can get up and walk around at 6:30 and go home at 7:00! We were fully prepared to spend the night here tonight, so this is a nice little surprise.

Dr. G had only positive things to say about today. We are very pleased with how everything went and of course we are extremely proud of our brave boy. This morning he had to get his blood drawn before heading back to the cath lab and it was TERRIBLE. I have never seen him scream and protest so much. It was heart-wrenching. He repeated the following string of words over and over until the ordeal was finished: NEVER! PLEASE HELP! DON'T DO THIS! STOP! NO! All while trying to wrap his arms around my neck. Ugh. That was tough. And he didn't even feel the poke! They used a nifty little thing called a j-tip to completely numb the area before inserting the needle. Hopefully next time he will remember that it doesn't even hurt.

I'm off to sit with my boy. We are all excited that we get to go home tonight!

1 comment:

dxeechick said...

always good new when you are cleared to go home!!