First Post-Op Appointment

Today was our first visit back at Northwest Children's Heart Care. Judah is doing well in so many ways :) He has gained 6.5 oz. since leaving the hospital last Thursday! He received a lot of praise from the staff and Dr. Park for packing on over an ounce a day since they last saw him. His labs looked great and his incision and drain tube holes are healing very well. Also, his chest x-ray looked great! Because he is eating so well and his x-ray showed no problems we are able to take away one of his two daily doses of lasix.

We do have a couple of things to continue to pray for though...First, his INR (level of anti-clotting medication) was too low so we have to increase the amount of coumadin he takes every night. It's scary to give him medication that can make him prone to bleeding and I was hoping to back off of it or at least be able to stay at the level we were at. His "blood clot" appears mostly unchanged. The doctors and echo techs are still scratching their heads trying to figure out where it really is. A new theory is that it is both inside and outside. Regardless, we still have to treat it like a clot, hence the coumadin. Second, Judah's valves (pulmonary and aortic) are not exactly perfect. The neopulmonary valve has a teeny tiny leak (not a big deal) and the neoaortic valve has a mild leak. We will watch these as he grows to see if they develop into anything that needs help, but for now we just wait and see. And of course there's the good ol' coronary arteries. There isn't any new information about them, other than because of the way they needed to be repaired we will need to treat any faintness or chest pain during exertion as an emergency as he gets older. For now, the doctors have told us that babies and toddlers do a really great job of pacing themselves and they will stop when something is too difficult for their heart.

Our next appointment is in two weeks. He also sees his pediatrician this week and a hemotologist next week. We'll post any updates about how things look after them.

We are so thankful for these past few days at home. Nehemiah had a lot of fun with his grandparents and aunties while we were gone, but I really missed him and I'm so glad to be home with him.

O.k...I jus woke up even though I'm supposed to be writing this and going to sleep :) I meant to write more tonight but I'll let the picture do the talking. Thank you so much for all of the prayers and words of encouragement.

Kirsten