CARDIOLOGY
Yesterday we spent the day at the hospital for Ethan's cardiology appointment. It was a long day (our 10 am appointment lasted until 2!). Ethan had an echo to start the day off. Unfortunately the echo didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped. They weren't able to find his left pulmonary artery again. This is the artery that keeps clotting off that we keep working on. The last time we couldn't find it was right before this last cath. It couldn't be found because it was completely clotted off. We can't be 100% positive yet, but it seems that it's clotted off again. This is pretty shocking since it was just opened and enlarged at his last cath less than two months ago!

                                                             Ethan during his echo

The docs are discussing some options, but Dr. Zahka (our cardiologist) said it looks like Ethan will need another cath in April. :( They are going to look at putting in a shunt since this clotting and stenosis seems to be getting a bit out of control. This will be a separate surgery though.

Dr. Royce (pulmonologist) talked with cardiology during the week. He told Dr. Zahka about his plans to take Ethan off coumadin and do a bronchoscopy and CT scan. Dr. Z basically said no way. Lol. But he is now saying we can do a bronch during the cath. That should give both sets of doctors some of the answers they need. Dr. Zahka mentioned the fact that we really need to see what's going on with his left lung before too much damage is done.

Please keep Ethan and the doctors in your prayers. We really need to figure out a way to stop this stenosis and keep Ethan's heart and lungs functioning at their best! I'll keep you all posted when I find out some more information. Dr. Zahka is going to contact me once he talks to Dr. Golden (our cath doc).

Now back to our trip!

DAY 5 - MAGIC KINGDOM

Today was another gorgeous weather day! Sunny and mid 80s!

We started out the day with a delicious breakfast at the Gingerbread House. Ethan woke up with a little case of diarrhea (or the juicy toots as he calls it!). Thankfully it was gone by late morning!

After that we headed to the Amberville Train Station to see the model trains and play some arcade games. Ethan worked on mastering Whack a Mole.

After that we loaded up the car and headed out to Magic Kingdom!

                                                    "Where Dreams Come True"

                                                       Magic Kingdom entrance

When we got there we decided to take the ferry across to get to the park. The kids were so excited to go!

                                   The kids playing with bubbles waiting for the ferry to arrive :)

                                        John and kids on ferry to Magic Kingdom

                                        Ethan lounging on the ferry bench on the ride

When we made it into the park we headed of course had to use our Photopass card and get some professional pictures with the castle in the background. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! All the pictures and video turn out with terrible quality when I download them onto here!

                   I apparently can never get a picture with EVERYONE looking nicely at the camera!

                                                                  Callie and Ethan

Then we went over to Frontierland and Callie and John rode the Haunted Mansion. Ethan and I stayed out since he’s not a big fan of ghosts. We watched a paddleboat load up and start off around the river. He enjoyed that.

While Ethan and I were waiting for John and Callie to come back from the Haunted Mansion we did a little exploring. It turns out we were right by It’s a Small World! :)

                                                              It's a Small World

                                Don't be fooled by his expression. He actually did like the ride :)

Of course we had to head over to Fantasyland once they got out of their ride. We rode It’s a Small World and the carousel. Then we decided to go eat lunch.

                                                           Lunch at the Starlight Cafe

After lunch it was back to Fantasyland to check out the places we missed on our first walk through. We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride and then I conquered my old fears and rode Snow White’s Scary Adventures. :)

Then we saw a sign for Mickey’s PhilharMagic 4D show. We all LOVED the show!

                                              Mom and kids by PhilharMagic entrance

After the show it was off to Tomorrowland. There the kids drove us around on the speedway. After racing we headed over to ride Toy Story Spin. That was a pretty fun ride where you get to shoot laser guns at aliens. Ethan enjoyed it a lot - and I have to announce that I beat the pants off of everyone! Lol!

                                                      Getting some ice cream

                                                   Callie driving on the speedway

Next we went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was this cute comedy show where they pick people in the audience to participate in their jokes and stuff. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling awesome at this point so I had to sneak out of the theatre halfway through the show. Apparently my aversion to ice cream did not go well with my decision to consume a root beer float earlier! Woops.

After that it was getting to be time for the Electrical Parade. We were really excited and lined up with tons of other people to see it. While we waited we were able to watch the Dreams Come True show at the castle. We bought some light up toys for the kids to play with. By this point Ethan was pretty tired and cranky. He started throwing a giant temper tantrum once his bubbles ran out and he wanted another toy. *sigh* I ended up having to find a corner to put him in (TWICE) because of this! He has to be one of the only kids to be put in the corner at Disney World! Lol!

Kids waiting for the "parade"

After a lot of waiting we found out that the parade wasn’t even happening that night! GRRR! Everyone was really disappointed at that news. So we headed over to Adventureland since we hadn’t made it to that part of the park yet. There we were able to meet with the fairies and explore the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. It was a lot of fun and Ethan started getting a little happier getting some attention from the pretty fairies! :)

Callie was in Heaven for these! She's still very into fairies!

On the way out we were able to catch some of the laser light show on the Magic Kingdom castle and then some fireworks on our way out. Ethan was scared of the noise from the fireworks so unfortunately we weren’t able to sit and watch it from up close. :( We did find a man selling some awesome light up balloons though. I figured they would be like $5 a piece so we bought two. Well they were actually $15 a piece - WHO CHARGES $15 FOR A BALLOON?!? - but we got them anyway since the kids already expected them! Lol.

The castle at night

 very blurry picture of the Disney at night

We took the boat back to the parking lot and headed for home. When we got back to the villa we ordered pizzas from Mama Merry’s Pizza. Then it was time for baths and bed. Everyone was very tired after today, but we did have a great time!