Heart cath aftermath

We are home. It was a weird, long day, and we are grateful to be back in the comfort of our home. We completely expected to spend the night in the hospital tonight, so we are extra happy to be here.

Here is a photo of Elijah literally just before I told him that the nurses needed to draw his blood. He was having such a good time driving around the unit in his fire truck, so the mood changed quickly once he started anticipating pain.



Dr. G showed us some detailed photos of Elijah's heart and lungs today. He reminded us that Elijah's lungs and arteries are far from normal, which is the reason he needs caths so often. Those little pulmonary arteries of his are constantly changing, and not necessarily in good ways. Stenting, ballooning and coiling will be a part of his life for a long time to come.

We did learn two very positive things today! Dr. G shared with us that since Elijah has only one kidney, that he has peeked at his functioning kidney during every single one of his eight heart caths. I appreciate this! I have never known about this before, which is a good thing, because we learned that his kidney has always appeared to be slightly large in relation to his body size. But today his kidney appeared to be a completely normal size! He also checked the function of the kidney and it was completely normal. We love Dr. G!

The other positive thing we learned was that the catheter insertion sites in E's groin on the right side still look great and are still functional. It is common for a child who has had as many caths as Elijah to have non-functioning sites due to overuse. He is very lucky in this area, especially since he will need many more heart caths.



Elijah had two popsicles (one orange and one grape!) before we left the hospital. He also had a handful of crackers and some juice.



On the drive home, he threw it all up in the car. Twice. At least it smelled fruity! :) His tummy obviously wasn't feeling great, so we got him home and cleaned him (and the car) up. He was acting VERY tired, so we put him right to bed. We are praying for a healing and very restful night of sleep tonight!

Sammy spent the day with Auntie Christine and his cousins. He seems to have had a great time! He was a ball of energy tonight, running around, stealing cookies from the pantry and swiping his brother's tired face.

We appreciate the prayers today! Thank you all so much!