Tuesday, December 14, 2010

And The Beat Goes On..

Yesterday was our first cardiology appointment since Jack's "mini pleural effusion" in February. This appointment was a tell-all for the next LONG period of time.. so we were interested to see what news all the tests brought. Dr. Su said he looked, sounded, and felt fine. He brought up the subject of decreasing Jack's Lasix dosage to which all 3 of us said "Nah- let's just keep him on it...."

His EKG reading was excellent, no abnormalities, not to mention Jack was VERY cooperative, didn't struggle, fight or cry once. He went right along with each test, and seemed just as interested in the results as we were. His O2 levels read (at what I think is the highest he's ever had at a check-up appointment w/o supplemental oxygen) at 93. This is huge.


His x-ray's were beautiful, clear and showed how much he is growing. Even the radiologist expressed that it was nice to see him healthy, and nice to see us getting x-ray's in the afternoon, and not at 6:30am (which is an indicator that you are admitted to the hospital.)

Jack's chest is a flurry of debris.. So below this picture, I included the "key" to identify the foreign objects seen via x-ray. There are other strange things in there that the normal person won't be able to see, like the Gore-Tex tubes that are providing passageway to and from his heart, the complete lack of an entire ventricle, and other things us "non-medical students" won' t be able to view.

Needless to say, we are THRILLED with the results, Jack is doing so well, he is happy, eating a lot, active, smart, loveable, horrible, crazy, hilarious and all the other things you'd hope a soon-to-be 5 year old to be. The next post will most likely be his birthday... coming on FRIDAY! (I have a 5 year old????)
A BUFF one.

4 comments:

Allison said...

Great news!! I can't imagine how relieved you have got to be feeling heading into Jack's 5th birthday with things finally looking and feeling stable!! I had to laugh about your decision to maintain his diuretics.... I wouldn't want to mess with anything that appears to finally be working! How is Jack doing with preschool?

Lisa Marie Trent said...

I KNOW Alli- right!? If it aint broke, don't fix it!

Jack is doing GREAT in preschool. He loves it, he has friends he plays with there and talks about to us each day. He loves his teachers... I am so glad. Sometime's he'll have an off day.. but for the most part I think it's going well! He'll be in KINDERGARTEN this time next year!

Anonymous said...

Awesome, Jack, just awesome! He's buff in so many ways and we're so grateful for a good report from the cardiologist. Really weird to find myself looking at chest Xray and admiring the job they did with the coils. Who knew we would become discerning experts of such things?

Can't wait to read about the birthday fun! We keep reading and praying.

Liz said...

Yay for Jack (and his parents)! I'm sure you just feel relieved and happy. Can't wait to see you guys. We fly in tomorrow!