Well, that was fast

We're home!

I think that sometimes the speed with which you get discharged is really just a matter of the whims of whatever doctor happens to be in charge of you. This time around, the doctor's whims wanted us out of the hospital, and so we are. Magnus is fine, albeit a bit crabby. He had a low-grade fever this morning (an expected reaction when a foreign object, like titanium coils, is placed in your body) but seems OK now.

And I'm going to take a nap.

"Not bad news"

We're back up on the ward. Magnus woke up about half an hour after they turned off his propofol IV, and gulped down some sugar water. We had to do a few things to get him adjusted, but now he's back asleep again, and I'm really hoping for a peaceful night! We have one of our favorite nurses tonight, so that's a big plus.

When we got back up to the ward, Magnus's regular cardiologist was here. She had only spoken briefly with the cath team, but she said that she wasn't too disappointed by today's cath. "It's not bad news," she said. "He could have gotten worse." She said that she was hoping to get us off the oxygen, but obviously that's not going to happen until his pressures start to improve. She also said that she was heartened by the fact that they were able to do what they set out to do today in the cath lab. She also laid out a bit of a longer time frame for his next cath, something like 3-5 months from now.

So, yeah, I guess that's pretty much how we're feeling. We didn't get great news, but we're relieved that we didn't get really bad news, either.

All done

We're in the anesthesia recovery unit right now waiting to see Magnus. We got the call that they'd finished up a little after 7.

The good news is pretty much what you've already heard: the cath itself went smoothly, and they were able to coil off his remaining collaterals in less time than they expected.

The bad news: his pressures are not too much different. However, the doctor who I spoke to on the phone, who was rather pessimistic with me when Magnus had his last cath, said that this may just be because not that much time has passed since his previous cath. The upshot is that he will need ANOTHER cath in a couple of months, and then we will really hope to see some improvement in his pressures. That cath should hopefully also be easier because they will hopefully just be checking his pressures and not doing so many interventions.

We had hoped that this cath would give us good news about his pressures and that maybe then we'd be able to wean him off the oxygen, but I guess not.

The update

Just called in: everything's going "fine," they're still coiling off collaterals, and will probably be another hour or two. Not sure if this completely rules out unpleasant surprises, but I guess so far, so good!

In the lab

Sorry for my lack of updates. We finally dropped Magnus off in the cath lab at 3, and then Iggy and I went out for lunch (Magnus was not the only one in the family who had gone NPO all day, so we were starving) and then went to buy him a new carseat, since he's close to outgrowing the infant seat we'd been using for him.

We haven't heard anything yet, but didn't really expect to. Our plan is to call and check in at 6 if we haven't heard back from them by then.

Still waiting

As expected, the first case is running long, so we have just been waiting here at the hospital and trying to keep our very hungry and thirsty boy entertained. Since he's gone so long without fluids, the nurses made 2 failed attempts to start an IV to give him some hydration. Now we're waiting for the special fancy IV nurse.

It could still be hours before he goes up to the cath lab. Sigh.

Second case

Well, tomorrow is the big day of Magnus's follow-up cath. He was originally scheduled to be the first case of the day, but today we got a call that he's been bumped back to second case. Being second case is not so much fun, because he has to be fasted for 6 hours before the cath. If he were first case, he'd be asleep for most of those 6 hours, because they start for the day around 9 a.m. Not so if he's second case. The other issue with that is that if the first case goes long, his cath will be delayed, and he'll have to be fasted for even longer. We're not too happy about that, but I guess they wanted him to be second case because they expect it to be a long cath and they don't want to have to rush it.

As a result, we expect him to get started around noon, but it could be later. And then last time it took them about 6 hours in the cath lab. I presume this time it will be a similar time frame, or maybe a bit shorter since they already know what they're dealing with.

As always, we will do our best to keep everyone up to date by posting here, but we probably won't know much ourselves until at least a couple of hours after they start.

On the schedule

Magnus's cath has finally been scheduled, and will be on December 21st. This is the result of multiple phone calls and e-mails on my part, and I figured out today that I think the scheduling was complicated by the fact that when our cardiologist e-mailed the scheduler, she gave her MY last name, which is different from Magnus's, so they couldn't find his information, blah blah blah. Anyway, we're on the books now. Chances are Magnus will probably still feel lousy for Christmas, and we may even still be in the hospital and/or digesting any possible bad news from the cath, but we're not really big Christmas people anyway. Plus, our babysitter is going to be out of town, so I'd be taking time off work to be with him anyway.