B stands for Lobby

We're home from Children's Hospital and Brady's cath. It went VERY well. After getting there for our 7 a.m. arrival time, Tom, my mother and I waited just a few minutes before being called in to prepare for the procedure. Brady swallowed his magical sleepy-time medicine eagerly (anything with a little sugar on it and we're good to go!) and after 10 minutes he was ready to be whisked away. We were told the cath and echo would last two-to-four hours, so we headed downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast.

But first, we headed down to the lab so Tom could get some bloodwork done he needed for his own doctor, so for all you Boston Children's Hospital patients out there -- Tom now has an official blue card! My mother and I graciously waited for Tom to be done before going down to the cafeteria, since he was fasting for his bloodwork and was starving.

After breakfast, we headed back up the the waiting room. About 15 minutes later, we heard a nurse say, "Brady Farrell's family?" He was DONE - in two hours to the minute, I think. We gathered our belongings to go see him in recovery, but were first stopped by Dr. Marx, his cardiologist, to let us know the story. Brady's echos as of late have shown he has a gradient of 60 on his left side of his aortic valve. However, the cath (which is the most accurate) showed it was more like 35-40. It is common for the echo to show more than the cath, so they were not too surprised. They also did another echo at the same time, which showed 60 again. This will let them see in the future when he has echos what the comparison would be. So, more or less, Brady would have an echo of 90 before it is a true 60 and need heart surgery. They also checked out his other arteries, etc and everything else looked great.

His cardiologist said we will not do the heart surgery now, but rather probably in a year. We planned our next echo in December, and during these next few months, Dr. Marx will speak to surgeons about the benefits of waiting three years to have the surgery, or to do it next year. If the chances are the same for success, he would rather do it next year. We agreed, as the sooner he is "mended" the better it is.

Brady pretty much slept the next six hours, with a few bouts of crying and a little fever, but for the most part he handled everything well. Right now he is sleeping in his crib, and I assume at some point he'll wake up for some more crackers and juice. He has a small incision in his left groin where the catheter went in, so I just need to be careful not to bug him too much there.

Thanks to EVERYONE for their phone calls, emails and well wishes. We had a few ideas what to expect (thank you WS moms!) but it is still a little unnerving to go through this, obviously. I am so thankful I had people to speak to about this who already went through it. Once again, thank GOD for the internet!

Also, as for the title of this entry, we found it a little funny (probably from lack of sleep) that in order to get to the Lobby at Children's, you went to the "B" floor on the elevator. There is a First Floor, but apparently you walk in through the basement in the Main Lobby. We were in the elevator and it was mentioned that "B stands for Lobby" and we got quite the chuckle.