Successful Cath

Dylan had his heart cath yesterday.  He did well with it and acts like nothing even happened yesterday.  Only thing I notice that shows that he had it is the two tiny cuts from where they went in with the catheter and what part of the adhesive from the tape hasn't come off his skin yet. 

We weren't supposed to have him to the hospital until noon.  I knew as soon as they said noon that he would be there overnight.  When we walked into the hospital, Dylan knew where we were and wasn't really happy. Kept saying that he wanted to go home or go to Grandma's.  He did get happy for a bit playing with toys in the waiting room but really wasn't happy when we went back to a room to change him into the hospital clothes.  He kept pointing at the exam table and said he didn't want to lay on that.  A nurse found a box of dinosaur toys for him that cheered him right up though.

The anesthesiologist came in and talked to us and talked about some of the risks involved with going into the pulmonary arteries (they can sometimes bleed which scares them and causes extra problems).  He watched as the IV team attempted to put one in Dylan and failed.  He said watching him gave him confidence in how Dylan would do with the procedure.  (They put in an IV later, after they had him asleep for the procedure.)  They gave Dylan a little bit of medicine to help calm him and make him a little sleepy and then we walked down to the cath lab where we talked to the doctor who would be doing the procedure.  He told us that he would also attempt to fix his leaky conduit (the artificial vein) while he was in there and try to get him back to us in the best shape possible.  We were given a pager and told they would page us when he was done and to go back to the cath lab where the doctor would tell us how it went.

After we walked away I remembered that I had wanted to take his picture before the procedure.  Too late.  Never did get any pictures in the hospital.  Wish I had.  Ah well.

When they paged us and we talked with the doctor, he showed us video and pictures of the procedure.  He showed us how they had used a stent to widen the narrow artery.  He also told us in going in to check the conduit, he found it wasn't narrow at all, but that he found that the valve is basically gone.  For now it's fine but will need to be fixed at some point.  Hopefully later rather than sooner. 

After he was awake and seemed pretty stable I went back home with the kids and Russ stayed with him for the night.  They were discharged around 8:30 this morning, after doing an x-ray to make sure things still looked good.

Dylan is supposed to take it easy for a couple of days.  He keeps saying that he "got shots" at the doctor but like I said acts totally normal.  For which I'm glad.

I will add though that going to a church activity the night before and finding out there that the theme was basically how to prepare for funerals isn't the most fun thing to do.  But pretty funny at the same time.

Dylan's Upcoming Heart Cath

I just realized that I haven't updated my blog since scheduling Dylan's heart cath.  He will have that done this coming Friday, the 17th.  I don't know the time yet since they don't finalize the schedule until the day before.  I will find out sometime Thursday afternoon what time we will take him in on Friday.  A letter (along with a pamphlet about the procedure) we received yesterday stated to call them if we have not heard by 5:00 the day before the scheduled procedure.  Hopefully I won't have to call.

Cupcakes and Cat

Yes, I could easily make this two separate posts but thought I'd save myself a little time by combining them into two posts.  Just because.

For Lyssa's birthday I made butterfly cupcakes instead of making a regular cake.  They were actually really easy to make and Lys loved them.  I even let her help a little.  Just a little though.  I run out of patience when it's something like the cupcakes when they don't do them quite like I think they should.  You can find the directions here on the Family Fun magazine's website.  If I were to make them again, I would make sure I did the white chocolate part of the wings a little thicker than I did.  They broke easily.  But they were kind of fun to make.

They didn't leave much space for putting candles, but I found a way.  Used the same candles I used on Jimmy's cake.  A few with the flame the color of the candle and a couple of the kind that relight. 

Yesterday as kind of a birthday gift for all of the girls (and Dylan since he says he wants it for him as well) for their birthdays this year, Russ came home with a cat.  He went to the animal shelter and picked her out from there.  The staff there named her Roxie and the kids all love the name so it will likely stay even though Russ doesn't really like the name.  She's a Domestic Shorthair/Siamese mix with the lynx point markings.  Whatever lynx point markings means.  I think she's just a pretty cat.  She hid most of the time she was here yesterday until the kids were all asleep.  Today she's warming up a bit more.  Still hides at times, but not nearly as much.  Wonder how long it's going to take us to get used to having a pet again.  Although it was pretty funny to have Russ get startled when she darted through the kitchen last night.  At first glance he thought she was a very large rat. I'd say he screeched a little, but it wasn't really a screech.

The kids were are very excited.  Dylan almost more than the rest.  So as she was hiding yesterday, they were gathered around following her to try to see her even as she was trying to hide from them.  Which was funny in and of itself.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

For some reason blogger isn't letting me upload photos right now or else I'd start this post off with a picture of Lys.  She turned 6 today!  Really doesn't seem like 6 years have gone by since I sat on the porch steps timing contractions while I waited for it to be time to go pick up Jimmy from his last day of kindergarten and then head to Mom's to go to lunch with her and some relatives.  (Just so you know, it really panics the waitresses when you inform them that you are in labor but think you'll go ahead and get something to eat.)  I knew it would be a while because the contractions were far enough apart and not strong enough.  She was born just after 1:00 in the morning.  And no, I have no idea why I decided to share that story.

Lys was so excited to be able to take a treat to her class for her birthday that she was ready to go over a half hour before she needed to be.  Just kind of fun for her to be able to have her birthday on the last day of school, especially the last day of kindergarten.  I think it made it more exciting for her. 

She is a very sweet and happy girl.  And man, does she love to tease her little brother.  We love having her a part of our family.  Happy birthday Lys!