Cardiac Rejection

I haven't been blogging as much as I used to due to nursing school, taking care of kiddos and things have been relatively stable with Owen.  My life is full of chaos and I am embracing every second of it.  If you follow along on FB (Owen's Superhero Heart) or Insta (andreansimmons), then you know Owen had a routine cardiac biopsy this week at Stanford.  His cardiac pressures and coronary arteries looked great!  Owen has been doing so well that we even discussed finally weaning off the prednisone he has been on for the past 7 years!  Results took longer than usual but we are dealing with grade 2 rejection.  It sucks!!!  Owen had a rough time processing the news and it about broke me to see him struggle with the disappointing news.  We both had our moment to process and now we are ready to boss up!   For those of you that don't know how rejection works.. there is a grade scale for cellular rejection... you can read about it here.

The game plan is to followup with the Phoenix team in 2 weeks and head back to Stanford in 4 weeks for another cardiac biopsy.  We are doubling up on his steroids to help kick the cellular rejection.  Please say a prayer for this perfect heart and this incredible boy.  I can only imagine the disappointment he feels and he really was so stoked to have a break from hearing bad news for a while.

Just an update on how well he has been doing.  Owen has been doing online public school and he loves it.  He has made lots of friends from church, in our neighborhood and loves hanging with his cousins.  He loves working out, playing basketball, learning baseball and lifting weights!  You would never know he had a crazy medical history or that he has to overcome so much.  Thank you for all your prayers, kind words, and positive love.

We will push through and continue this battle with congenital heart disease.  We are one of the lucky ones and we don't take a second of that for granted.  Love you all.