by There was an opening in the cath lab today, and since we have been npo (no food by mouth) for over 24 hours anyway, we were able to snag the open slot so we could get the clear picture of AJs heart that we needed so that we could forge forward with what’s next in terms of his heart. It’s not something we were expecting to happen so soon, but it’s something that we were happy to get done so that we knew what would be next.
We spent the morning and afternoon getting our snuggles in before sending him off to the cath lab around 230.
Of course, right before he went down, the IV that he did have stopped working and had to be removed, so we tacked on a couple hours in the cath lab for getting a new IV, and then some time to put in another PICC line for more permanent central access so we don’t continue to have issues with IVs. Seriously, this little boy looks like a pin cushion between all of the blood draws for labs, attempts at getting IV access, and his twice daily lovenox shots.
We had updates throughout the procedures, and 5 hours later, around 730, he was returned to the room – a little sleepier, a little crankier, and with a few more access ports than when we had handed him over.
The procedure itself went fine. Just like last time he has diminished circulation in the leg where they went in for the cath, but the hope is that it will improve over the next few hours to days (which is what happened at CHOP during his last cath too).
We were miraculously able to determine that his heart looks like it’s supposed to right now — there’s no blockage of the shunt and his pressures look good. Which is a relief as it means we aren’t as stressed out about a potential clot stopping all his blood flow to his lungs right this moment.
We don’t know yet what’s next — everyone needs to get together and look his stuff over, but thus far my best guess from my non-medically trained knowledge is that he’s just down and out with this cold bug that the rest of us have all had at one point or another. We will probably have a better idea of what’s next after everyone has a chance to go over things and come up with a plan tomorrow, but the good news is that the catheterization is over and done with no significant findings and I can lie down on the couch in his room tonight and sleep quite a bit easier.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that sent warm fuzzies and prayers our way, it worked, that’s for certain. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but it’s still progress. 💕
