Out and about, and a heart update

I'll get to the heart update but first we have some cute pics to share from our fun family road trip we took this weekend. We got in the car and took a spontaneous trip to Duluth and then to Stillwater. Elijah was such a good baby. He slept very well in the hotel rooms and he loved all the time we spent outdoors.


Our first stop--Duluth


We walked along this path by the river in Stillwater about 50 times. Elijah loves his stroller rides.


Look at those big, pretty eyes. He has longer lashes than I do!


Checking out the sports section after his breakfast bottle.

Elijah had a cardiology appointment on Friday and it went well. His oxygen sats ran right around 90%, which is just a touch high for him and may indicate too much bloodflow to his lungs. He needs to get another heart cath to see exactly how things are working since surgery, so we scheduled that for October 3rd. Dr. Gremmels will go in through a vein in his leg and up into his heart to get a good look. The last two heart caths Elijah had were merely to take pictures and get an idea of how blood was flowing, so they were pretty simple procedures. This one will probably entail either a widening or tying off of an artery, depending on what the doctor finds. (Dr. Megan Porta here believes that there will need to be a coiling/tying off of an artery.) Because of this, it's a more complicated and time-consuming procedure than the last two and he'll have to be put on anesthesia and may even need to stay overnight. This cath will also give us a much better idea about when his next open heart surgery will be. Dr. G's guess was that it will be somewhere around a year from now. I don't like adding drama when describing what Elijah goes through, so I apologize for the following. The last heart cath he got was not fun for any of us. Elijah had breathing issues (i.e., forgetting to breathe) after the procedure; the nurses poked him all over his little body as they tried (and failed) to find a vein for an IV and made Mommy want to punch each one of them, five nurses and ten tries later; his oxygen sats dropped into a low, scary range for a few hours post-surgery; the nurses in the Short Stay wing must be the lowest on the food chain because they were not very nice, knowledgeable and/or attentive. I'm praying this time will be much more smooth.

Another thing Dr. G mentioned on Friday was that Elijah's heart is enlarged due to it working extra hard. It will be good to get the total repair done next year so his heart doesn't have to work quite so hard anymore. We also increased his Lasix dose a bit, since he's gained 4 lbs since his last visit.

Tomorrow Elijah gets his new helmet! He's going to look so cute. We'll get some pics posted soon so you can see his cool, crazy colored design.

Thanks for checking in on us. As always, we appreciate the support!