Sedated Echo

Dylan had his sedated echo bright and early this morning. Bright and early enough that I left home with him before the sun had risen above the mountains. With the sedation, he wasn't supposed to have anything after 6 this morning and only clear liquids after 2 am. I expected him to be a bit cranky. Luckily, he pretty much stayed asleep as we got him dressed and put in his car seat. He stayed asleep until I had to get him out for a chest x-ray that they did first. He seemed more interested in where he was and what was going on than wanting food, so he wasn't cranky. At least until I went to lay him down so they could get an iv in him for the sedatives. He just really didn't want me to lay him down. And then the nurses had the nerve of holding his arm still. I thought he would cry harder once they put the needle in, but I really didn't notice a difference from his crying because they were touching him. Yeah, I'm thinking he would not have done well for the echo had he not been sedated. He doesn't think people he doesn't know should touch him. Heck, he doesn't think some people he does know should touch him sometimes.

I then went with a nurse back to the room to do the echo. Turned out that the guy performing the echo had done one on Dylan back when he was 3 days old. He was surprised that Dylan wasn't crying. I guess a lot of the kids are still upset about getting the iv by the time they get back to the room for the echo. Dylan stopped crying shortly after the nurses let go of him. (They had commented about how strong he was so really taped up the iv spot so he couldn't pull it out. He found the end that they left exposed to be fun to play with.)

After they finished up with the echo (his saturation levels kept going down, likely because of the tail end of a cold so he kept them paying attention nicely), I went with him to the OR recovery room while he woke up and drank some apple juice. He was still a bit loopy when I left there with him to go back to cardiology to meet with his cardiologist.

Dr. Menon said that we will try to get as much mileage out of his conduit as we can. Obviously it is still leaking (mild to moderate) and one of the pulmonary veins is a little narrow, but he doesn't think it needs to be corrected right now. He is having Dylan come back in 6 months (two months longer than between the last two appointments). He said there he will probably have me schedule an mri to get a really good look at his heart but added he's pretty sure this conduit will last 6 more months. I get the feeling there that it probably won't be much longer than 6 months before he needs his next surgery. But in the meantime, I'll try not to worry about it. Other than the leak and slight narrowing, his heart is functioning very well.

That's about all there is to mention about his appointment today. Went faster than I expected, which was nice.