The News

Today was the day we've been waiting for: Ewan's cath procedure to find out the extent of his heart damage. We arrived at Primary Children's Hospital at 8:00 am and began the lengthy check-in/waiting process. Luckily Ewan didn't seem to notice too much that he hadn't had breakfast! He was in a great mood and, as usual, enjoyed finding the fun in life (even when it involves collecting vital signs.)

The doctors and anesthesiologist all came to talk to us and were SO very nice! They were loving and understanding and promised to take the best of care of our boy. When it came time to go back, Ewan excitedly ran. His sock had turned around backwards and the non-slip side ended up on top of his foot. This caused him to slip and he went down right on his head. Oh dear. It was awful! He was screaming and there was a big, red bump on the back of his head. All the doctors and nurses gasped and we were all very upset. They told us to go regroup before they began the procedure. I picked Ewan up and after a few minutes (and being able to watch himself dance on Baba's phone) he calmed down. The anesthesiologist let me hold Ewan while they put the laughing gas on him because of all the trauma. He quickly got a glazed over look on his face, and I laid him down and gave him a kiss and hug before we had to leave him.

After leaving him, the panic really set in for both Quin and me. I was nervous about the procedure, but I was mostly nervous about the results. The doctor came and found us after about three hours and took us back to the office to discuss the results. He went into great detail (most of which went over my head), about the hole, the effect the hole has had on his heart and lung function, and where we go from here. All in all, the doctor is quite surprised and pleased at how well his heart is doing. He does have about 3 times the amount of pressure on his lungs that a normal heart would have, but his lungs haven't been too adversely affected! They still look healthy and there has been minimal closing of the arteries. These results are just preliminary. They still need to look at all the numbers from the blood they took from all the chambers of his heart. They also analyze all the data and review all the images they captured after they have all the numbers in. He feels fairly confident, though, that a VSD repair is a possibility. This would extend Ewan's life about 30 years. I am so relieved!! This is absolutely the outcome we were praying for!

After talking with the doctor, we got to go see our boy. He was just waking up from the anesthesia and was quite groggy still. He gave a giggle when we walked in, though. He's so cute! He was out of sorts for a while, but not too crazy. They let him sit on my lap since he needed to hold his legs as still as possible. 

Once they let him start drinking, he seriously guzzled three sippy cups full of water! He was allowed to eat and started with crackers, then chicken nuggets, fries, and a shake. He ate for the next four hours straight. He was so, so hungry! We had to stay in the hospital to make sure he didn't bleed and his leg clotted properly. Finally we were discharged at 5:00 pm. We had to head to get a chest x-ray before we left in anticipation of his VSD repair.

It's scary to think open heart surgery is in our very near future, but really this is the very best outcome of all. I fell overwhelmingly thankful for Ewan's preserved health. He is a strong, resilient boy and I can't wait to get that heart fixed up so he can start growing and really thriving! We are all tired emotionally and physically, but I have a feeling we'll sleep peacefully tonight!