Birthdays, caths and great results, Oh my!!!

Happy 5th Birthday!!
 

It has been a busy month....Joseph celebrated his 5th birthday on Feb 25th.  We took cupcakes to school and he even ate a little bit of the frosting!!!  He is asking for more foods and tastes of drinks.  He says "Get in baby Joseph's belly!"  It is too cute.  He is doing amazing in school.  He can verbally spell his name and can write it too.  He loves words.  He spells everything he sees!  And then wants to know what it says.  His speech therapist tested him a couple weeks ago with flash cards.  He verbalized 54 words, she only wanted 50!!!  She feels he is ready for kindergarten.....PANIC!!!  This time last year he was probably saying about 15-20 words and now he chatters on like a monkey in a tree.  It isn't always clear but he really trys.



Ready for cath lab....
 

     Yesterday we went to Children's Hospital at UAB.  He had a diagnostic cath to confirm his ECHO results from his last few clinic visits.  It was a LONG day....He woke up at 430 am because he had a bad dream.  I am sure it was because he was feeling my anxiety.  So we got ready, gave him his meds and he puked most of them back up at me....ugh. So we changed clothes again.  I had told him we had to got to hospital for the doctor to look at his heart.  His daddy told him we would go to Bass Pro after he was done so that made him happy. 
     He got a dose of versed in his tube before he went back.  He was so funny.  He was watching TV and just started giggling.  Then he was looking at his hand and the lights....I am pretty sure he was seeing purple elephants!!!  We kissed him good bye and handed him over to the cath lab staff.  Then the wait began.
     It took about 2 1/2 hours.  They said when he started waking up he was trying to climb out of the bed!!!  We got back there and they were holding him down to prevent him hurting himself.  They had to give him additional fentanyl to calm him down.  I held him till he woke up.  Dr Law came and talked to us while I was holding him.  He said his heart and lung pressures were completely N-O-R-M-A-L !!!  Yes, normal....We are so blessed.  He did have to balloon his inferior vena cava again.  They aren't quite sure why he is having stenosis there but the good news is the pressures above and below the area is normal.  They surmise that his body has figured a way around it, which is good.  I asked him if they area could be restricting blood flow to his mesentaries or vessels in his abdomen.  The reason I asked is because he complains of left belly pain a lot.  GI is at a loss because his GI studies have been normal.  Dr Law said to let cadio know if his belly pains stop after this cath because that would indicate the IVC is causing some issue, so we will be watching this. 
     He woke up nice and then we had to wait till 6 pm for bed rest to be up.  He kept saying he wanted to go to Bass Pro.....It was a long 3 hours.  We gave him some Tylenol because his leg was hurting and some apple juice.  He did well with it.  Then about 45 min later we gave him some more....well it didn't go so well.  He puked everywhere.....ugh.  I figure his belly is like mine and I am always nauseous after anesthesia.  So we waited an hour or so and gave him about 45 ml, he kept it down. 
     At about 615 pm we were outta there!!! And we headed to Bass Pro...lol.  He loves the fish there.  we looked at them while Daddy did some man shopping.  Joseph picked out a Bass Pro race car...go figure.  And we headed home.  We got home about 930 or so and he was so ready for bed.  Got PJ's on, meds and some more Tylenol and he was asleep in about 5 minutes....Sweet boy.
     He did so good.  He was so brave and fought a  great fight.....He is my hero!

Ready to go!!!