All Done

I had to repeat those words many, many times as he came out of the procedure. He wasn't happy, but after he got settled in recovery with me, he has been more content.

The cath went just as planned - so thankful!! Now we're back up on the ward. He has complained about pain in his leg, but just managing it with Tylenol. A few more hours of cartoons and we should be back to our 'hotel'.

We had to ask for this smile....but he gave it to us for a few seconds - enjoy!!

Here We Go!

I just got out of the cath lab. Nate went in holding me tight, but very brave and quiet - and most likely just unsure of what was all around him. That was at 9:45am.

Now about 3 hours of waiting. Don and I just got a muffin (thanks for the recommendation, Dr. Mike!). So we'll sit and wait it out, with Drew Carey on The Price is Right as our soundtrack, lol! It's empty and quiet in this area so it's nice.

After he recovers here, we'll head back to Children's, and to another familiar face: when we got here this morning, I saw someone familiar, and kept staring (hopefully not creepy!) until I realized the nurse on the ward is one of my Schmidt cousins!! A nice bit of sunshine in our day.

Here are some pics from Don's phone. Always nice to have construction zones to watch to pass the time.

Thanks for your prayers. They are being felt every moment.

Settling in...

Today was pretty easy for everyone. The Pre op appointment went smoothly and was more discussion than anything.

We wandered around a bit this afternoon and our 'moose' enjoyed his lunch at Montana's. Lunch in a truck -can't go wrong with that!! It was lovely to run into some friendly strangers - Hi Karen's mom - thanks for the wonderful visit and encouragement at the mall!! And now that we're settled in at the Ronald McDonald house, it was great to chat with the parents of an ortho client who is at Children's.

Don and Nate are enjoying some air hockey and pool right now. Will get him ready for bed soon. It will be an earlier morning than usual :)

The jury is still out on the use of Versed prior to the cath. Will depend who is doing the anesthetic and how Nate is doing with everything.

Thank you for each prayer and encouragement we have already received.

The Week...

Thank goodness for Lego!!!  Here are my two favorite Lego Creators.  The boys can spend hours in "Lego Land", the room that they have devoted to building and creating!

And hopefully Lego help pass the time in the coming days, too!  It's time for Nate's heart cath.  This is a first for us, so not sure exactly what to expect, but feeling relatively calm and prepared.  As for Nate - he's great, since at this point he doesn't know what's coming up!

He has really turned a corner, when it comes to medical appointments, in the last few months.  He's been cooperative, quiet and content!  My biggest hope is that he won't be royally ticked at me (and the world!) when he wakes up from it.

Our plan is to tell him he has a regular heart appointment tomorrow (Tuesday), which shouldn't be a problem with him.  We have the pre op appointment at 11:00am at HSC.  I'll know more about the day to come after we talk to the anesthetist.  I'm hoping for a cocktail that will reduce the fight or anxiety that he may feel on Wednesday morning when some familiar things (such as not eating/drinking, those horrible gowns, getting the IV) start happening!

We'll tell him that we have another appointment the next day, but for this one they want to watch his heart while he's sleeping.  Think it will work??  At this point, the plan is to report to HSC at 7:30am on Wednesday, with the procedure starting at 9am. They expect he will be under general anesthetic for about 3 hours, the length of the procedure.  After a 2 hours of recovery, he'll be brought to the Children's Hospital to spend the rest of the day.  That's where my bag of tricks come into play.  Hoping the new Lego set and the stack of movies will help pass the time in recovery (about 6-7 hours), during which he has to lie still.

If all goes well and routine, he will be discharged in the evening, but us 'out of towners' are asked to stay in Winnipeg for the next night as well.

Brady will be happily staying with my Mom and Dad, which I'm thankful for!

That's it for now - I'm sure I'll have a chance to update the blog along the way!  Thanks for your prayers!