Coughs, caths and cousins (and a sore leg)

Isn't this photo cute? Elijah is watching a movie with his sweet cousin, Emma..



Thank goodness croup stayed away last night while we were medicineless. I made a trip to Elijah's pulmonologist's office today over lunch and grabbed some more vials of the magic elixir. It feels very good to be stocked up.

I'll be honest, the sickness in our house is getting a little bit old. Sam is worse than ever, I got hit with another (milder) round this morning, Elijah is doing his usual post-croup coughing and now Dan is sick. Sorry for griping, I realize sickness is something every family deals with in the winter.

And onto another topic that I am having a difficult time with. Elijah's upcoming heart cath. I recently whited out the words "Elijah's heart cath" on my calendar because it was making my eyes tear up every time I would glance over and see it written there. Elijah hasn't been hospitalized in a year and three months. I have no idea what to expect regarding his anxiety. Will it be better? Worse? For me, the mother, this is one of the most difficult parts of this disease...seeing my little boy scared and confused and anxious, and anticipating all of the above.

Elijah will be getting a lung perfusion scan (a test that measures air- and blood-flow in the lungs) in the morning on February 17th. That will be followed by a heart cath performed by our very own Dr. G, and possibly Dr. B, as well, if stent work is needed. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what work will need to be done (if any) until Dr. G does the cath. After the cath, we should have a good idea about when the next open heart surgery will occur. I have a suspicion we will be spending the night in the hospital on the 17th since the cath doesn't start till sometime around 11:00 am.

A few lighter items of business so I don't sign off on a completely depressing note..



My sweet niece Emma spent a day/night with us this past weekend and we had soooo much fun with her! She was able to see with her own eyes just how much Sam can slobber. She kept saying, "Auntie Megan, there's more slobber that needs to be wiped.." :) Do you see the bib Sam is wearing in the above photo? It's sole purpose is to catch drool. He completely saturates about 3 of these per day. Sometimes we even double bib. Dan and I joke all the time about our Slobbery Sammy. Like, how we should tie a drool can under his chin so we can measure amounts at the end of each day (kind of like the rain). Or perhaps we could permanently implant one of those dental suction devices to the inside of his cheek. Ok, enough teasing. Sorry, Sam! We are just amazed!



Do you think Sam likes his food, or what? I love this picture. FEED ME, EMMA!

Sorry, I got side-tracked by drool! Back to Emma. Elijah especially enjoyed her company this past weekend. If she left the room, he would say, "EMMA?! Where Emma go?" Ever since she left yesterday, he has asked me repeatedly, "Emma come back soon, Mom?" The first thing he said when he woke up this morning was, "Emma go home? I pway wif Emma?" So, needless to say, he adores her! We all do!



While Emma was visiting we played more Wii than we normally do, so now I have a few battle wounds. When I play Wii bowling, I do a complete lunge with just my left leg. So now I feel like I went to the gym and did 50+ lunges. If you've ever done lunges, you understand my pain! Emma and Dan were able to beat me in almost everything, but I did find that my forte is in wakeboarding! Ahhhh, so much fun! Emma and I discovered a sword slicing game that was really fun, too.

That's all for now. We're hoping for a drama-free, HEALING week. Thanks for checking in!