Not the results we wanted

As promised, the update from Alexander's cardiology appointment today. It was not the results we wanted.

The visit started off good with Alexander cooperating during his echo-cardiogram (many kids, beginning around Alex's age, get sedated for echo-cardiograms). He stayed still for most of it, while his daddy sang to him and showed him his favorite songs on a Fisher Price App (thank goodness for electronics too.).  His cardiologist came in for the results about a half an hour later, informing us that the pressure in the left atrium of his heart had gotten larger than what it was 6 weeks ago, due to tissue regrowth in his ASD (the hole in the heart wall that used to separate his left and right atriums). Therefore, it is necessary to have Alexander go into the catheterization lab soon to reopen the hole. Because of the size of the growth, his cardiologist can't just go and use a balloon to open it up, instead a metal stent may need to be implanted. However, before this can happen she must first talk with his cardiac surgeon, Dr. Starnes, and find out if the stint would cause any complications later on for his next surgery (which is still at least a year away). If so, he may need surgery to remove the growth. For now, we start with taking him to the cath lab.

Of course hearing this news brought tears to our eyes, as this the not what we wanted to hear. We were hoping the next time we had to hand our little toddler over to the surgeons would be when he was closer to 3 years of age - not at 14 months.

I'm not looking forward to handing him over to the doctors. I'm not looking forward to the waiting game, to seeing him hooked up to lines and possible vents. I'm not looking forward to seeing him on pain medication or having to keep him calm after all of it is done. I just want to keep him home and continue to teach him the world around him. I don't want to pause.

Even though I'm not looking forward to Tuesday (which will be here before we know it), I'm going to try to stay strong, get most of my crying done over the weekend and just enjoy being with my happy, lovable son! Because Alexander must be healthy in order to have the procedure , we will be quarantining ourselves this weekend. No visitors coming and we won't be going anywhere with him. Prayers and positive thoughts/energy are much needed for all of us. For Wes and I to stay strong for Alexander, for Alexander to rock this procedure and that no complications arise from any of it, and that we only have to stay 1 night in the hospital. As always, I will be updating you on how it all goes and thank you for following us along on our superman's journey that is about to get rocky again. <3