Cardiology and catching up

Well...just to spread the word, Callie is participating in Hoops for Heart again this year! The past three years she was top fundraiser of her school - all thanks to you! We have been able to raise a lot of money each year for the American Heart Association! :) We're asking again for donations. If you'd like to donate money for Hoops for Heart we would be so appreciative! We're kind of behind due to Callie's trip last week (more on that in the next post), so we're trying to get money collected this week if possible. Please let me know if you are able to donate -- and ANY amount helps! You can send me an email at jkbradley44@gmail.com, and I'll send you my address to mail a check or cash. This is going to a great cause - obviously raising funds to find cures for heart disease is VERY near and dear to our hearts! :) Thank you!

Also...girl scout cookies have arrived! If you ordered some cookies, expect them soon! :) And thank you so much for all the cookie orders!

Okay, so we had a cardiology appointment yesterday. This was just a pre-cath appointment to make sure Ethan is looking good and ready for the cath. His EKG was good and we didn't even do an echo. :) Ethan was happy about that! We went over the plans with Dr. G (cath doc) for Monday. He's going to insert a covered stent (very similar to the one that was placed last time). This one will go in his left pulmonary artery though - this is the one that continually clots off. We hope that by putting in this covered stent it will stop the closing off of the artery! That would be amazing! The concern with this is we don't know how the ends of the stent will react. His cells have been growing through the open stents that are there, which is why they keep clotting off. This covered stent will stop the cells from being able to grow through the stent and clot, but the ends are a concern. The doctor doesn't know if his cells will wrap around the ends and clot off on the sides instead of in the middle. I asked what we do if that happens, and his response was "That's a good question." Then silence. Well, apparently he's not too sure what to do in that case yet either. Please just keep Ethan in your prayers that his body accepts this without a problem and doesn't have any growth around the edges!

Ethan did so well for his EKG! :)

Daddy and Ethan playing on the computer waiting for the doctor

Dr. G once again reminded us of the fact that surgery is approaching. He said we have exhausted all options for working on his conduit - especially since last time was so dangerous and it cracked. He said we're not even going to touch it again. The next step is the open heart surgery to replace it with a new larger one. We've been expecting this (that was actually supposed to happen back in June and then again in September), so it's just something to know is coming.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a very smooth and successful cath on Monday! I will keep you all posted as the day progresses - and even more so on Facebook if you follow me there.

Other than that, things have been going well. Ethan has been feeling well thankfully and did not end up getting the sickness that went through our house last week. I had some nasty stomach bug for 2 days, a sinus infection, and lots of congestion and headaches. I'm still not back to 100%, but I'm doing SO much better than last week thankfully!

Ethan finally got his new glasses! He loves them, so that's a relief!

Mid-blink :)

We took a trip to Chuck-e-Cheese before Callie's trip. Here are some pictures of that!

*Note the small child on the games in the background. This kid was climbing on EVERYTHING without any parent in sight! John helped him get off countless games all while his mom ate pizza and chatted in a booth with her friend. Grrr!

The kids all had a dance party and ticket grab :)

Callie shooting baskets

My dad's birthday was this past weekend, so we had a little ice cream cake to celebrate. Ethan had to help Grandpa blow out his candles though!

Also we had a little family bowling night. We met up with my dad for a Chinese buffet, then headed over for bowling - and met up with my cousin who was playing there in a league that night. :) We had a lot of fun!

Ethan is not the most focused bowler. :) Here's a video showing a bit of how his evening went. LOL After rolling it towards me, he managed to bowl in the wrong lane!


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Thank you everyone for all your thoughts, prayers, and support! It means so much to us! I will keep you all posted with the cath updates. I will also be posting up about Callie's trip last week - but that might be broken up into a daily log... Still working on it :)