10AM July 17th.. Owen will go get his new Heart

We have had a crazy day, to say the least. We woke up early and headed to the hospital for Owen's PICC line dressing change.  He was such a rockstar.. no tears!! 

I am pretty sure this is how every 13 yr old spends her summer vacation.  She was helping keeping Owen distracted during his dressing change... it worked!

Goofing off while waiting for the nurses to set up.

They are doing a lot of construction next door while building the new hospital, so most of the kids have to wear special masks.  Owen hates the green masks that are too big for his face and they leave a rash on his neck.  This was the next closest mask for his size and he LOVES it!!  At first he thought he looked like a storm trooper and then started breathing and talking like Darth Vader.  He thinks he's pretty awesome.

Then he realized the pink filters were too "girlish" so he took them off. Now he thinks he looks like Bane off of Batman.

At 3pm, I got a call from one of the heart failure cardiologists and I just knew.  It took everything in me not to break down on that phone call.  My chest was in my throat and I ran into the bathroom to talk.  He said they have a great match for Owen and that a room would be ready at around 5pm to get him admitted.  That's all he knew at the time, but said it would be a long night. Here is the video of Owen finding out the news!!


We came to the hospital at around 5 and got the admitting paperwork done.  The room wouldn't be ready for at least another 2 hours so we ran back to the RMH for dinner and to snuggle.  I had a long talk with both of my kiddos individually.  Owen was nervous he would feel things and have lots of pokes and I assured him that he would be sound asleep with the anesthesia.  Kam asked all the grown up questions about "will he be okay?"  "Is the surgery risky?"  That was a tougher conversation.

We got a call around 8pm to head back over to the hospital.  We got Owen settled into his room and vitals taken.  Owen was so excited to see his favorite RMH friend a few doors down from us in the hospital.  Owen's PICC line wouldn't draw labs and we had at least 10 tubes to fill.  So I told them to take a break and let him rest while I ran to the airport to pick up Carson.  Kam stayed with Owen and I picked up C at 10pm. 

I came back and the PICC line still wouldn't draw, so after sending Daddy and Kam back to the RMH to sleep, I held my boy down while he got poked.  That is never fun, but we got all the labs in one stick. :)

Owen is now sound asleep.  The transplant surgery will begin at about 10am tomorrow morning (West Coast time).  It's midnight and I just gave Owen his last tube feed and tucked him in. He's had his OR prep bath and we are ready for sleep.  Thank you for all your support and prayers... tomorrow will be a BIG day for Owen and our entire family.  I will update as I hear from the OR.  Night.