Medical stuff and some birthday fun!

Well we'll start off with the medical stuff first.

Ethan had an echo two weeks ago. The echo looked pretty good (stent is still open thankfully!). Ethan's overall checkup went well and everything sounded pretty good still (well at least no change).

Ethan at Dr. Zahka's office

The next week on Ethan's birthday (Aug 2) we started off the morning with another cardiologist appointment. Dr. Z decided to skip the echo since the previous week's one was pretty good. Dr. Z commented a few more times about the strength of his murmur and how it's changed since his last surgery. We discussed the plans for the new surgery a little more. He also commented on how he's not exactly sure that this is going to solve our problems. That was a bit of a surprise, but he said he had to be open and honest. This will create more bloodflow to his stent but they're not sure if that alone will keep the stent from clotting off again. They don't really know what to expect until it's all said and done because they're still not sure of the reason that he keeps clotting in the first place. We know that this surgery is necessary anyway because he's outgrowing his old conduit, but we can only hope and pray that this stops the clotting. If it doesn't change anything, then we're kind of back at square one having to do the repeated caths and figure out another surgery to solve the problem. We'll just have to wait and see.

On Tuesday (Aug 7) we go see pulmonology. Hopefully he'll give us the OK for surgery. Once we get cleared that his lungs are healthy enough and pulmonology signs off for surgery, then we meet again with Dr. Stewart (the surgeon). In this meeting we'll just go over all the exact plans and drawings for the new surgery.

Dr. Z thinks that surgery will be set for the week of August 20th. It's not for certain yet. We'll know more after Tuesday's appointment. Dr. Z is out on vacation and will return that week, so that's why he is expecting it to be around then. I'm personally hoping they can push it back to around the first week of September. That way we can at least attend the kids' school open houses, meet the teachers, do Ethan's Pre-K evaluation, and I can be there for Callie's first week of 4th grade! I definitely don't want to miss out on all this! Oh well, we'll know soon enough!

Now onto some better news :)

Ethan turned 5 on August 2nd! We were able to celebrate his birthday with the family the weekend before and Ethan had a great time! Callie also had her birthday at the same time - she turned 9 on July 25th. The kids loved having everyone over and got so many great presents that they've been busy with ever since - thanks everyone!

His traditional birthday breakfast. Each year we just stick a candle in whatever the kids are eating that morning for their breakfast. He gets a kick out of it each year ;)

Giving himself an EKG with his birthday stickers :)

And making a REALLY goofy face for his picture

I finally got the pictures and everything from the Indian's game first pitch. Yesterday I spoke with Meritech (the company who gave us this opportunity) and gave them permission to post up our experience and pictures on their website. :) That should be up soon since they're finishing it up now. I'll work on that post and put it up either tonight or tomorrow (finally!) 

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers. I'll have more information after the pulmonology appointment on Tuesday. Hopefully he'll get some good news that his lungs have been improving. He still has a very wet cough and that doesn't seem to be going away even with all these breathing treatments we do. I'm not sure what else can be done or what to expect if Dr. Royce (pulm) says his lungs aren't healthy enough for surgery.

I have a few more posts to include in here from our summer - it's been kind of busy and I've slacked off on the updates. :( At least we've been having a lot of fun!

Thanks for all your prayers and support. I'll post again very soon with some more information!