It’s crazy to think that two weeks ago this day, we were checking into the hospital for Asher’s surgery. I honestly did not think we would still be here by now. We have seen many come and go on our floor during our stay, and the few that are still here with us. I can remember the mom who would push her child around and around the floor halls in his stroller. I told her the stroller was a good idea, and she weakly smiled and replied yes, but that now that is all her son wanted to do was have her push him around the halls. There is the child next door with no hair, who has been here since we arrived, and based on the mounds of stuff in his room, has been here for awhile. The floor has mainly cardiology and oncology patients, and they also take RSV patients in the winter. Is is actually relatively empty now, with lots of empty rooms. The nurse told me last night that they only had eight patients, so things were pretty quiet from when we arrived a couple of weeks ago.
This morning, Asher slept in a bit, which I was grateful for since he couldn’t eat anything after 2 a.m. and couldn’t drink anything after 6 a.m. in preparation for his cath. I stepped outside at 8:00 a.m. when the cardiology team was doing their rounds. Our doctor, Dr. Kyser, wasn’t there because he was in the cath lab doing another cath, and Dr. Iguidabashian, the surgeon, was still out of town until tomorrow. There was still some debate on if Asher needed the cath or not, but they felt it would be worth going forward in case there is some issue with his heart that they could measure more effectively in his cath. They did say that the first cath patient had already checked in, so I could give Asher clear fluids until 9 a.m., and the would check back once the second one arrived so I could give him fluids until 10 a.m. I was relieved because going until 1:00 p.m. with no food and no fluids is challenging for an adult, nonetheless a four-year-old! They came in again at 9:00 and said he could continue his fluids, and I distracted him by letting him play a lot of Wii and watch TV shows while I got ready. At 10:00, one of the doctors on the team came in and said he really didn’t feel that Asher needed this cath right now. He said to continue not eating and drinking, but he was going to try and catch Dr. Kyser in between caths, and also the P.A. and get their feedback. I didn’t get my hopes up, but about an hour later, just before 11:00, he came in and said the cath was cancelled. I could hardly believe it. We had been praying the doctors would know what was best to do for Asher and for his situation, and that Asher wouldn’t have to go through anything that he didn’t need.
Can you see Asher curled up in the bed early this morning?
The overall consensus was that Asher was doing so well that even if they did find something in the cath, they wouldn’t do anything about it right now anyway. There is still some concern about what they call some “turbulence” of the blood flow as it comes back and enters his heart from the pulmonaries, but they said time will tell if that is an issue. There could be a bit of a membrane that has grown there around where the pulmonaries come in, or it could be that the pulmonaries are angled a bit causing some turbulence. Either way, these may or may not effect him. If they do effect him, we will see him with low energy, weight loss, and dropping oxygen saturation levels over the next several months, and at that point they would go in and do a cath and see if they need to do surgery to help repair that area of his heart. Shane and I were relieved and felt like this was what was best for Asher, even though it means we still have that worry in the back of our minds. When we first heart of this potential issue with Asher, the section in the Bible Dictionary under prayer kept coming to my mind, that prayer is “a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.” I really felt that if we struggled and worked through some true prayers, combined with fasting, Heavenly Father would bless Asher with the blessings He knew were best for him. I know that there were so, so many people that prayed with us, some even fasting on a non-fast Sunday, that we would see this miracle in Asher’s life. We were once again truly humbled by the love and support from so many, and the love and blessings Heavenly Father saw fit to give to Asher at this time.
Shane came up to visit for lunch, and we played a round of I Spy Go Fish and ate lunch together before he had to head back to work. Asher didn’t just get an easy ride today though – they needed to do a blood draw to test his potassium levels since he is taking Lasix, and they had to remove some tape from where his JP drains and other pleural cath were removed. Someone from child life came in to help him, and she gave him a ball to squeeze when he feels pain, and he seemed to like that idea.
The nurses have started letting me do his pleural cath drains, and we have changed them to every eight hours instead of every six. He had 88 mls on Sunday, 67 yesterday, and 59 today, so we will hopefully continue to see progress. They are prepping Asher to be able to go home tomorrow or Thursday, as long as his fluid numbers continue to decline, so we are hopeful that works out.
Asher and I “escaped” to the Mario hills tonight, and then we walked along the third-floor garden, following some slugs around and playing I-Spy until it was time to go up for his last vitals, pleural caths and meds of the day and to go to bed. Asher was super happy today, and was even cooperative and joking during his vitals and pleural caths. He has been through so much and I am constantly amazed at how tough he is and how well he handles it all.
Asher doing his going-home-soon dance.
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