Bump In the Road

Happy Friday. We got up this morning thinking we were going to run to the hospital and have a quick echocardiogram and chest Xray and be home by lunch time. We are still here...

Riley did not enjoy the echo even though it is not painful. It is basically like having a sonogram when you are pregnant. He just doesn't want to be messed with. The technician went to check with cardio after getting a ton of pictures and told us to hang tight incase they wanted more. Of course, they wanted more. While they were still getting more, the cardiologist came in and showed Joel and I what appears to be a clot or mass in one of the chambers of his heart. He had already called and let Dr. Martin know, who told the cardiologist to send us up when we were done to see him. It appears to be connected to the catheter connected to his new port. Both the cardiologist and Dr. Martin feel it is too soon after having the port put in for it to be from Wednesday's procedure. More likely, Dr. Martin feels it has probably been there awhile and is more like scar tissue. He said we may not have been able to see it before, but after having the port put in Wednesday and things being moved around, it may have made it able to be seen at a different angle.

The plan is to put TPA in the port (which they just finished doing), and have another echo done Monday to see if it is gone or smaller. Dr. Martin doesn't expect that anything will change, but as long as it is not any bigger, we should be okay to just have it checked again at our next appointment in 4-6 weeks. The worse part was having to access the port so soon after the surgery. I couldn't stay in the room while they did it. I sat outside with my fingers in my ears while Joel and the nurse handled Riley. Apparently the needle going in wasn't bad at all, feeling around to find the placement of the port was the worst of it.

As soon as I got back in the room, Riley was already back to smiling again. Now we just have to wait an hour to make sure nothing happens while the TPA is in, then we will be free to go until Monday. I asked Dr. Martin if this would keep us from leaving Monday and he said only if the mass is bigger on Monday, which he does not expect.

Our plan is to go ahead and start packing things up and getting ready for our trip home next week. Hopefully that is God's plan for us as well! Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are looking forward to visits from Shannon this evening and Brandy & Autumn tomorrow. Uncle Brian and Joel are going to a hockey game for Uncle Brian's birthday, which is Monday, so things should be busy here for us.