Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Pre-Operative Testing

Everything went really well today. Caleb and I made it to Ann Arbor safely and started our adventure. Our first stop was a chest x-ray. A chest x-ray on an infant involves velcroing them to a bicycle-like seat on the wall, it looks like some form of medieval torture. For a toddler, they get to sit in a chair with a velcro seat belt and get their picture taken. Caleb behaved perfectly and the x-rays were acceptable on the first try.

Our next stop was to meet with the doctor that will be doing Caleb's heart catheterization tomorrow. He checked him out and said his lungs had a little junk in them, but they were not bad. He did not mention postponing the surgery, so for now, we assume that what may remain of his cold will not hold us up. He gave me some information on what to expect tomorrow, said that Caleb looked great and we moved on.

The nurse checked Caleb out next. She made sure his ears were good and checked his blood pressure. Everything looked good. Luckily, Caleb's heart cath is first thing tomorrow. We need to be at the hospital at 7:00 am, but Caleb won't have to wait very long without eating. For some reason, not being able to give him food or water always bothers me. The nurse said that Caleb may or may not spend the night in the hospital tomorrow night. If things go well and we are both comfortable with it, he may be allowed to leave. If there are any complications, we will spend the night. Based on his past performances, I will be bringing my clothes with me.

The next step was a very detailed echocardiogram. Originally, the hospital had Caleb scheduled for sedation for his echo. Phil and I discussed it and thought he would probably do ok without sedation and the hospital allowed it. I was very happy because his echo wasn't until 12:00 pm and I would have had to ride to Ann Arbor with a very hungry, thirsty Caleb if he was going to be sedated. Plus, we felt bad knocking the poor kid unconscious three days in a row. We made the right call. Caleb watched a Thomas the Train video, was nearly perfectly still and fell asleep during the echo. They let me lay on the bed next to him, we snuggled and he never once cried. When he woke up, he did not find the echo gel very amusing however.  Caleb picked up the rag the technician had used to wipe off his chest and proceeded to do more wiping on his own.

Sleeping Through the Echo

After the echo, Caleb had an EKG. Taking off the stickers from the EKG was the only time he cried today. It was the fastest EKG that Caleb has ever had because he stayed so still. His oxygen saturation was 80% which is quite high for him lately.

Overall, we could not have asked for better results. Caleb did a great job and we haven't found anything yet that looks to be a problem with his health or his anatomy.

We left the hospital at 1:30 and went out to lunch. By then, Caleb was very wound up after not being allowed to yell, run down hallways or play in dirt (although he did manage to play in the toilet in the hospital restroom), so we went to play outside. We talked to a lady that was out letting her dog run. The similarities were too funny. She was throwing sticks to her dog and Caleb was picking sticks up out of the grass. Both the dog and Caleb played in the puddles.

My Lunch Date
Swinging Off Some Energy

We ran some errands and made it back to the hotel for dinner. After a bath to get the last of the ultrasound goo off and about 30 minutes of trying to convince him that he was ready for bed, he finally fell asleep. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers this week!




3 comments:

  1. Sounds good. Thinking of you all a lot ! Grandpa D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jen and Phil - We are praying and will be tomorrow as well, for your little man - Caleb!! Blessings and Love, Alex and Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such a handsome lunch date you had ;) Praying like a prayer warrior for Caleb, family and the hospital team.

    ReplyDelete