Back from the Hospital

Gabe had his angiogram yesterday afternoon. After all day of fasting and it getting set back, it was so good to get it over with. There was good news and bad news. (I am not in the medical profession - so those who are, please forgive me if I mess up terms) Everything that we were expecting (pulmonary atresia, etc) is present. The good news is that he only found one small collateral that is feeding the right lung. If there were many collaterals, which I think they were expecting, it would have been a more difficult repair. He said that the right lung is getting almost no blood from the heart. The bad news is that his pulmonary artery is not continuous, but they believe it was at one time. It is very small, only 3 mm and therefore, they will have to put in a shunt. That will happen on Wednesday, August 5, which means that the repairs will be put off for a few months. The shunt should allow the pulmonary artery to grow, which will make the repairs possible. So instead of one surgery, he will have two. He was such a trooper for this short stay there. Brian and I stayed with him, but I feel very comfortable leaving him overnight when I have to for the big surgeries. They took such good care of us in the PICU. They will make a zipper incision for the shunt and then use that again for the repairs. I am glad that I got his pictures done this week and we managed to get a bathtub picture so we will have a nice one before he gets his "zipper."

It seems that he will likely be in PICU for about a week after the shunt and then hunkered down at home for another 5 or so weeks. The repair will likely be in November or December with a longer stay expected at the hospital. Again, he will have to stay in the house and limited interaction with people for about 6 weeks following that. However, they sound very optimistic abour the outcome, which makes all of these procedures much more tolerable.

Gabe is totally back to himeself today and glad to be home. We still plan to party on Saturday at my parents. Please feel free to stop by betwen 1-5 at 1712 Kingsbury in Washington.

I gotta run. Gabe just feel asleep and I have to take these opportunities while I can! Thanks for the continued prayers and support.