A 2 Year Old and A Phone Call

The month of February will always consist of CHD Awareness week (February 7th-14th), heart-versaries in the "heart world" as well as birthdays. Our Superman turned 2 on February 11th, celebrated two years since his first surgery (February 14th) and since his first pacemaker (February 21st)  had been put in. 

 Alexander had a little birthday party with family members on a very hot Valentine's Day. He enjoyed himself and his birthday cake so much that he didn't take a nap that day! Needless to say, the birthday boy was cranky by the early evening and was asleep an hour earlier than usual. 

Right when I thought I could start to relax now that the birthday party was over, I thought wrong. This past Thursday, I received the phone call from CHLA that it was time for Alexander's pacemaker to be replaced. Wes and I had been sending bi-weekly pacemaker home checks (something we are required to usually do once a month, but now it's bi-weekly). The past home check we ran has told the doctors that Alexander's battery is running low and that it is time. So tomorrow we have a surgical consult to discuss implantation of the new pacemaker. This procedure is considered outpatient procedure and the procedure itself should only take 30 minutes. As we all know Alexander, he does things at his own pace and therefore, tere is always the chance that he may need to stay overnight. There is a possibility that when the surgeons go in to replace his pacemaker, they may discover that need new leads. If that is the case, they would need to open up his chest (not what we want and is worst case scenario). When CHLA called me last week, they suggested that we pack a bag because there is a good chance Alexander would be admitted and perhaps the surgery happen the following day! But we won't know any of that until tomorrow. What has me nervous is that when I got the phone call, I was told that by Wednesday, there is a good chance that Alexander's battery would be at EOL status (End of Life) and begin to beat at a fixed  rate of 70 beats per minute (he currently beats around 120 when active and 80-90 when asleep).  I've been constantly checking his pulse though and all seems fine. So as i just mentioned we won't know until tomorrow!

So for now we just watch Alexander become a toddler and keep us on our toes every second of the day! A new update will happen in the next few days. Thanks for continuing to follow along with our journey