Yesterday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to head downtown for Ethan's 16th heart catheterization. We were pretty nervous about this one since it was the first time ever that our cardiologist (Dr. G) was not going to be performing his cath. Thankfully his new cath doc has been preparing for the past couple years and has sat in on his past four caths. That helped us feel more comfortable with the change.
Ethan was incredibly brave for his procedure! He was very scared and has been so nervous about this for weeks. He did not want to take the Versed (medicine that makes him completely loopy to keep him calm and happy before his cath). I was amazed at how well he did! He walked himself into the OR and sat up on the table without any problems. He was nervous, but didn't whine or cry at all! He didn't want to lay down on the table to wear the anesthesia mask, but he sat, put the mask on, did his breathing, and went to sleep with no problem. I was amazed!
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| Mom and Ethan before the cath |
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| Callie & Ethan goofing off in pre-op |
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| Ethan on the operating table |
The docs were able to gain access through his neck and right groin as usual. They found a lot of narrowing in all of his stents and one area that has not yet been stented. His conduit had significant narrowing, but they were able to balloon open each site successfully. She did not want to be too aggressive especially in his conduit due to his past history of tearing, but still she was able to open it up more. He did have an episode of tachycardia. The docs decided to shock him to put him back into a good and safe rhythm. Other than that episode he apparently had no issues throughout the procedure! He went back to the OR around 8:30 and we got the call that he was finishing up around 3pm - that was the shortest cath he's ever had! He finished up amazingly with no bleeding issues (thank the Lord!) and extubated without a problem!
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| Typical big sister! |
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| Getting ready to wake up :) |
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| He's awake! |
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| Family relaxing in recovery and Ethan has his new Lego set :) |
In recovery he woke up and asked if his cath was done. We told him yes it was all over and he said he was so happy! He was in and out of it for a while, but woke up enough to have some Sprite and applesauce. We went upstairs to our room for the night about an hour later. Wow, that was an adventure. We had a HORRIFIC roommate when we arrived! The family was absolutely filthy - food and garbage everywhere, used bandages and tissues all over the floor, hair EVERYWHERE, blood was all over the place, and it smelled terrible! I was appalled! We realized that the roommate's family had been sleeping on Ethan's bed before we got there. There was blood, hair, and *hopefully mud* on the sheets. Thankfully he was still wrapped in the sheets from PACU so he wasn't touching any of the new bedding.
The kid was also a nightmare. He was spitting on, hitting his nurses and respiratory therapists, and shouting out plenty of insults to them. The family spoke barely a word of English, but apparently the kid knew some insults! I was shocked especially at the fact that his parents seemed to just laugh at his actions!
Our roommates finally left around 7:30pm and the cleaning lady came in. She had to request extra time for the room (she spent almost a full hour cleaning!). After the room was nice and clean, Ethan had eaten, and our nurse came in to do his 9:30 dressing changes. He had to lay still for 6 hours post-op so he was very happy to have his bandages removed and be able to move around. His nurse was great and he tolerated it really well. :) Then it was time for nighttime meds. We decided to have him take Tylenol just to make sure he didn't wake up in pain in the night. That was a mistake! Apparently the hospital Tylenol tastes much different than what we have at home! Ethan gagged on the taste and threw up all over his bed. :( Good thing it was time for new bedding anyway! We got him cleaned up and fresh bedding, and he was much happier. :)
At this point we were exhausted, but we heard the news to prepare for a new roommate. :( NOOO!! Ethan had already passed his short window of sleep time (once he is tired he needs to go to bed. Otherwise if he stays up even just an hour later he will struggle falling asleep all night!) That was happening today. He decided it'd be a good idea to walk the halls since he'd been cooped up for so long. He did great on his walks, chatted with everyone he saw, watched some babies sleeping at the nurses station, and showed everyone his new Lego portapotty! I finally convinced him to come back to bed and try to get to sleep. Once we were all settled the new roommates arrived. It was around 11:30pm at this point. They were very nice, but the room lights were on full, all the docs and nurses had to come in and discuss the problem and get them situated, the kid hadn't eaten so he ordered food, and then proceeded to watch TV until around 2am! Thankfully they finally shut things off and we were able to fall asleep. 4am we were woken up for vitals and then again at 5 for an EKG. Thankfully Ethan was able to fall right back asleep after these interruptions. Then as usual, Ethan was awake and ready to go at 6:30am. We took a short walk and made some toast at the snack station. Then we were called down for an echo and that looked great! We spent some more time in the room watching TV, playing Legos, and eating breakfast. Then we went downstairs for our final test of the day - x-ray. He did great and was excited when the x-ray tech let him look at his pictures on the screen! Once again every doctor and random person we met in the elevator, etc was shown the Lego portapotty! LOL!
My phone died that night and I realized I did not pack my charger! :( Sadly I don't have nearly as many pictures as usual, but at least I took some before it was completely gone!
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| Working on Legos in his room with his Beads of Courage hanging behind him |
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| Such a good boy :) |
After a short time back in our room cardiology came in and discussed the cath again. We were then told that we can be discharged and we'll follow up with cardio in the beginning of August! :) YAY! Discharge took a little longer since we were dealing with getting information for our oxygen company switch. Our current company is no longer accepting our insurance, so now we have to find a new oxygen supplier. I have to have our old one send out his medical need paperwork that they have to give to the new company, and then hopefully it will be an easy transition. Then we had the IV pulled and final bandages removed. We were discharged around 11:30am, grabbed some Starbucks on our way to the parking garage, and headed home! We were so happy to be out of there so quickly!
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| YAY! Going home! |
I was so thrilled with how friendly and easy-going Ethan was through the entire hospitalization! I was so proud of him and his great attitude definitely made a hard situation so much easier! :)
We made it home and went to lunch with Callie and John. Then when we came back home the kids relaxed while I caught up on some work, cleaning, and unpacking. Ethan fell sound asleep on the couch since he was so exhausted. After a nap, dinner, checking his bandages, and getting cleaned up he went right to sleep. He had a great night sleep and woke up feeling great in the morning! He was having some neck pain, but that is common for him with the neck access they do for his caths.
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| So tired! |
Overall, his cath went very well. They did not place any stents, but they did have to balloon every single one that he has. He had growth and narrowing on the inside of each stent. They also successfully ballooned an unstented area that had narrowing. The cath doctor said we should hopefully see some improvement in his numbers in a couple days once the contrast and everything is out of his system. So far we haven't seen an improvement, but hopefully it will come. He was still ranging mid 50s-mid 70s without oxygen after the cath and when we returned home.
We are so thankful to everyone for all their prayers and support through this! Please keep Ethan in your prayers that his oxygen sats do improve and he continues to recover quickly and easily! I will be updating again very soon with how he is doing as well as information from our Kentucky trip over July 4th!
