Cardiac Cath and MRI In Progress

We had such a fun day yesterday and I'll post about that next. For now.. Owen is in the MRI lab. Yesterday morning, Owen had his Echo and EKG. He was such a silly boy for the echo tech and chatted her hear off for the hour. My little guy has a sweet heart for the blond girls! He just loved his entire echo and found a huge water gun in the treasure chest when he was done.

We talked with the cath lab team and signed the dreaded consent forms. I always hate that we have to sign those, as if we have a choice. We spent the afternoon and evening at the beach.. more on that to come.

This morning started with the sun rising. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 and Owen got some happy Versed. He was so loopy and just giggled. We signed more consent forms with the Cardiac MRI team and spoke with his awesome anesthesiologist. We headed back to the MRI lab around 9. Owen was totally zoned out and it was easy to get him to sleep with the watermelon flavored mask. He put up a little fight and I love to know that he still has it in him! He was calm and relaxed while I sang "Baby Mine" to him as he drifted off.

Today is going to be a long one. Owen has a cardiac MRI from 9-11. They are taking tons of pictures of his heart and creating a map of his heart. The cath lab Doctor came and chatted with just a second ago and said they just got the lines in and took his labs.

I didn't want to have him stuck in the lab yesterday, so they agreed to let the anesthesiologist do it before the MRI while he was sleeping. They always get a blood type screening and antibody match prior to the cath lab in case they need to transfuse him. Since we originally came for transplant 2 1/2 years ago, and his antibodies are extremely sensitized, they are very careful with the blood they use to transfuse him with.

After the cardiac MRI, Owen will be transferred to the cath lab, while still under anesthesia. Dr Fienstein will check the pressures in his heart and coil any collaterals if they need it. He is in good hands and we will have some basic answers at around 1:30 when Dr Fienstein comes to speak with us.

If things go well, we are planning to stay in the 24 hour short stay unit for monitoring. Unless, of course, I can convince them to let us go back to the the hotel. If they need to do intervention in the cath lab, or they don't like what they see, we will stay in 3West (the cardiac step down unit).

I let the MRI and Cath team know that we have a meeting with Dr Hanley tomorrow morning at 9am and with Dr Rosenthal at 1:30. They said they will have everything ready for the surgeon and cardiologist tomorrow, so we should have a pretty good idea of what's to come before we fly home.

The weather is so beautiful here at around 60 degrees. I am sitting in the courtyard outside of the surgical waiting area. I have a few nerves, but I feel so confident in the team here. I know Owen is in great hands and we feel so lucky to have him here.

Carson took Kamryn for a little drive into downtown Palo Alto. She had a hard time seeing Owen this morning in pre op with the versed. She is a strong big sister, but she worries so much about her baby brother. They will be back to eat lunch with me and to talk to the doctors. Keep Mister Owen in your prayers and his big sister too!