Cardiac Cath

I think Logan is catching on to what it means when we wake him up early, put him in the car without breakfast, and take a drive... a trip to the House on the Hill, aka Primary Children's Hospital.  He was very skeptical of what was going on this time.

He loved playing with the toys in the surgical waiting room, and was so ticked off when they took us back to our room because he still wanted to play with the train.  Although, getting weighed and measured was pretty exciting too because he got to see if he was as tall as Elmo and got to look at pictures of all his favorite characters as he got weighed. They are brilliant there with the kids!

 The lovely hospital get-up is a sure sign he isn't going to be a fan of what goes on.

 After meeting with the doctors Logan decided he would go ahead and drive himself down to the cath lab.  He was so funny.  Usually he needs a good dose of versed to calm his nerves, but he was so distracted by the toys we never even felt like he needed it.

 His anesthesiologist was one of my favorites so far.  He talked to us and put us at ease and then started working his charm on Logan.  He pulled out his I-phone and started playing games with Logan.  He got Logan to follow him out of the car, hold his hand and climb up onto the cath table without even looking back.  I kissed his head as he walked away.  It all happened so fast!

 Yes, that is him up on that huge operating table with NO drugs... only an I-phone!  I cried more than he did.  It makes it easier when you aren't handing a scared, crying child over to the doctors, but it is never easy handing them over and having to walk away.  This is Logan's 7th procedure in his short 23 month life where he has had to be fully sedated and intubated.  Doesn't seem fair. 

 The procedure took about 3 hours.  My stomach was in knots the entire time.  Thanks to our good friends the Quists we made it through those 3 hours.  Severin (Logan's heart friend) had just had a cath the day before and had to spend the night so they were still there that morning.  We hung out with them the entire time, and it was SO great to see Severin looking better.  His cath improved his color so much! 

My biggest fear sending Logan into the cath lab was that they wouldn't find anything "wrong."  Not that you want them to find anything wrong with your child, but we needed them to find answers into why he was having the symptoms he was having.  His cardiologist, Dr. Mack, was spot on in his guess as to why Logan was struggling.  His Pulmonary Artery had significant stenosis.  Dr. Gray tried ballooning it open 3 times, but it wasn't opening up enough so he ended up having to place a stent.  The stent is a metal mesh that can expand and contract with the artery.  It is something that will have to be replaced throughout his life as it is metal and won't grow with his body.  But opening that up with help the blood flow to his lungs significantly.  Dr. Gray also found the clamp that had been placed to close his Azgous Vein during his Glenn surgery had come off so this vein was huge, and working against him.  It took 2 coils to close this vein off.  Both of these things were causing him to de-sat.  He came out of the cath on room air holding his sats between 80-83% when he wasn't crying, and if he got really mad he would only de-sat into the low 70's instead of the 50's and 60's like before.

 The nurses LOVED him because he was so easily calmed by movies!  It was written in his charts that he is easily distracted by movies.  After the cath they are required to lay flat for 6 hours allowing the sights they entered to clot completely (they had to enter through his femoral artery in his groin and also in his neck).  So we watched Dora, Mickey's Club House and Elmo ALL day.  The crazy kid didn't fall asleep until 7:00 pm- of coarse.  Just enough of a cat nap to not want to sleep that night.  The bonus was when he finally fell asleep I was able to go visit with a fellow heart mom Chrissy and her sweet boy Matthew.  Matthew is 4 years old and waiting for his 2nd heart transplant.  He was absolutely delightful, and his mom is amazing.

 We raided the playrooms at 9:00 pm when he woke up and was finally able to move (thanks to Angee for the tips on which playrooms we could get to after hours)! 

 We walked every floor of the hospital, visited every fish tank, and tried to give him a break from his room as long as possible.  He would point at his door and say "go" all day.  This was the first time I have ever heard him say go.  So we would "go" as much as possible.

 The night was long, I didn't sleep a wink, but at least Logan did thanks to the big bed.  I would lay next to him because he would only sleep if he was touching me at all times.  We had x-rays taken early Wednesday morning and then waited for the doc.  Dr. Gray came back to check on him and said his x-rays looked perfect, the only concern is Logan was still a little puffy, but he said his body will probably take a few days to get use to the new pressures and blood flow.  So he send us on our way, and told us to have fun in Disneyland! 

We took Logan to the Forever Young Playroom on our way out so he left the hospital on a positive note.  He had a blast playing with everything, and didn't want to leave (but he kept tipping over from being so tired so we finally insisted on leaving).  Hopefully the toys are all he remembers from this visit to the House on the Hill!

Since being home Logan has been pretty tired and sleeping more, but seems to have better color and not so many blue spells.  We are trying to let him heal and not run and play too hard yet, but it will be fun to see if this makes a difference and helps give him the stamina and oxygen to run and play like a 2 year old should.

Just had to show his poor belly.  His skin hates all those blasted stickers they keep on to monitor him.