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.

The way it's supposed to be..

So, I'm thinking of getting this in a 26x26, and hanging over my fireplace.

This is the most beautiful x-ray, not because of how clear it is, but because he went a whole week without getting an x-ray, and managed to keep fluid out of his right side.

Dr. Su wasn't there today, and he told me after we did bloodwork and x-ray to see a "Dr. Jou", who for some reason was nowhere to be found. The clerk told us to go home and he'd call us. I wanted to discuss Jack's bloodwork because I needed to know if we needed to still pump him with Potassium, which in some cases could be dangerous. So we waited some MORE- and still no Dr. Jou. So I decided to take things into my own hands Alli-style, and I went up to our second home, the surgical floor, and found an RN that recognized me. She was kind enough to look up Jack's lab results in the computer, and tell me that Jack's K is at 3.2, and it should be 3.5. So I then texted Dr. Su, who was kind enough to give me he cell phone number, and told him Jack's results, he said to stop one of the doses of Lasix, and continue the Potassium. This of course, was the official order- over text message. I also sent him a picture text of the x-ray, and he said it looked good- but would like to see it on a larger screen....

but believe me, this x-ray looks great.

So that is where we are. I have gained a bit of perspective, and I'm happy every time Jack screams at the top of his lungs because I know he has full lung capabilities. I'm happy when Jack asks me for 12 marshmallows. (I give them to him.) I'm happy when I see his incision site looking like it were never even touched, and healing beautifully. I'm happy when I go to bed- and wake up to his happy voice calling me from his bedroom.

Life is "normal" again, and I've never been so grateful for an average day.