Home!

We are home!

Whew, the last couple of days have been exhausting. The cath itself really went as smoothly as we could have hoped (including the excellent news that came out of it, AND having one of our favorite nurses both days) and Magnus's recovery was a lot easier than last time. It was mostly easier on us parents, too, although I didn't mention that I did have an hour of anxiety when the cath lab paged us to say that they were finished, and when I called back they said that they were finished but that they "didn't really do anything" and that the doctor would explain when he met with us in an hour or so. This made me very nervous, since the plan going into the cath was to coil as many of his collateral veins as his pressures wouldn't allow, so not doing anything seemed like it meant bad news. As it turned out, they didn't coil any of his collaterals because they felt they didn't need to, and as I mentioned yesterday, basically everything looked as good as could be hoped.

Last time he had a lot of bleeding at the cath sites and clearly didn't feel good for about 24 hours afterward. This time, he was a bit groggy when we first saw him, but the nurse in the anesthesia recovery unit said that he had woken up "really fast" and was mostly his old self right away. After a cath, you're supposed to lie flat and keep your legs straight to protect the catheterization site in the groin. Definitely NOT easy to enforce with an active 2-year-old! We managed to keep him distracted pretty well with videos, but he kept trying to get up and run around.

At 5:30 his "bedrest" was finally over, and shortly after that, we got a pass to go down to the playroom, which we'd never done before. Magnus had a great time playing with toys and drawing pictures, but by 7:30, he was clearly tired, so we took him back to his room and tried to get him ready for bed. Of course, in the hospital, you don't always have a lot of control over your own schedule, and the nurses had to come in and check his vitals and stuff, and with all the excitement, even though he was really tired he didn't end up falling asleep until nearly 10.

Then, at 2 a.m., when the nurse came to check his vitals again, we found that his feeding tube had become disconnected from the feeding pump, and his bedding, pajamas, and diaper all needed to be changed. He didn't fall asleep again until 5 a.m.! We got 2 more hours of sleep and then had to be awoken for more medical stuff, but we basically got to go home first thing this morning! We had a few little hiccups with medication changes (he's now on all once or twice a day meds, which is much easier for us!) and a little bleeding incident when they took out his IV, but we were home by 9:30. And now I am going to take a nap.

"A perfect situation for him"

Magnus is done, and we just got an excellent report from the cath doctor! They didn't do much but that's because they said he looks so good they didn't need to do much. The title of this post is a direct quote from what he told us. For the first time, his pressures are low enough that he could be a candidate for the third Fontan surgery, although he doesn't need to have the surgery right now. We also don't have to do another cath for another year! In a few minutes we can go down and see him...last time he woke up pretty unhappy, and I imagine this time will be the same.

Waiting

We dropped Magnus off at the cath lab a little after 9 and he's still up there. Things generally went smoothly this morning, with the exception that the cold I thought he had entirely shaken was still evident when the doctors and nurses listened to his chest. However, they determined that since the congestion is in his upper airway and not in his lungs, it was safe to go ahead with the anesthesia and cath, but they said it might take him a little longer to come off the breathing tube when they're done.

We haven't heard anything from them, which is good, since the only reason we would expect them to have called by now is if there's a problem. My guess is that he'll probably be in there for another hour or more.

I think we're on

Magnus's cath is scheduled for tomorrow. Last week, I was a bit worried that we'd have to reschedule, because he came down with a cold early in the week, but he seems to be fine now. Apparently we are scheduled to be first case, which is amazing; they do two cases a day in the cath lab, with the first starting around 8 a.m. and the second scheduled to start around noon. However, the last two times we've been second case and the first case has run late and we got started several hours late. Generally starting on time is one of the big advantages of being first case, but the real advantage is the time frame, since Magnus has to be fasted for 6 hours before he starts. Obviously, fasting from 2 a.m.–8 a.m. is a lot more pleasant than fasting from 6 a.m.– noon or several hours later. Also, there is a theoretical possibility that we could avoid an overnight stay being first case, although I'm not counting on that. Actually, I'm not counting on any of this until it actually happens because I know that today we could well get a call saying that Magnus has been bumped to second case or perhaps rescheduled altogether if there is an emergency. Hospital stays are charmingly like air travel in that way.

But hopefully all will go as planned, they will find no problems, and I can focus all my worry on the fact that last night our dishwasher started leaking into one of our downstairs fire alarms, causing it to repeatedly go off (miraculously, M slept right through it).