Recovering on the third floor

We are on the third floor in our penthouse suite taking turns holding Elijah so that he doesn't bend his leg too much. He has already drank two juice boxes and he has eaten a grilled cheese sandwich, a container of yogurt and a half of a banana. He's a bottomless pit! He is pretty crabby and tired, understandably so. Right now Dan is holding him while he watches Elmo on tv.

He did GREAT during the cath! He was a little star, as usual. The cath took four and a half hours! That is the longest it has ever taken. Dr. G spent an hour and a half trying to coil ONE collateral artery, unsuccessfully. Everything else he wanted to do, he was able to get done. He ballooned the existing stent that was put in his right pulmonary artery during his last surgery. He also coiled off a few collaterals that were supplying duplicate bloodflow. The collateral that he wasn't able to reach isn't an immediate concern. We will need to keep an eye on it and we can possibly wait (hopefully) till Elijah's next open heart surgery to address it.

Dr. G thinks his next open heart will take place in "a couple years." Not the most ideal answer, but it could certainly be worse. Elijah will unfortunately need more heart caths before that happens. Again, not ideal, but it could be worse.

The pressures in his heart are "ok." Not good, not bad, just ok. His heart function looks great. His oxygen sats are great. He is doing really well. Getting sleep tonight for any of us will be an enormous challenge, but we'll do our best. We will get to leave in the morning, hopefully early.

There is one cute thing I want to share before I go gobble down a sandwich. The nurse who was taking care of Elijah post-op told us that she thinks that Elijah is Dr. G's "special one." Apparently he came back in to check on him a few extra times after the cath and he said, "Hey buddy! You're my special buddy." Awwww, I love it!

Good night everyone. I hope you all have fabulous holiday plans and that you have a fun, safe weekend! Thanks for checking in on our little monkey man.