Day Four

Cardiologist: Well, after his echo and we see how well he eats, he can go home tomorrow.


Me: WHAT?!?!?!?

Cardiologist: (smiling) Well, only if you're comfortable.

Me: Yeah - ummm... we're not going anywhere.

Yeah - we have open heart surgery on a child with Williams Syndrome and a dehydration issue and you suggest you go home without eating or drinking successfully for a few days? You better smile, doc!

To be fair, the cardiologist suggested this before he realized he wasn't eating or drinking. Once he realized that, his tune changed. Brady in general is doing better, he just needs to get off the fluids and start eating and drinking more. They put him on fluids at night to keep him hydrated, but we try to encourage drinking by mouth during the day.

He had his echo which showed that "you could drive a truck through his aorta, not that you'd want to do that," his doctor comically told us. When the tech did the echo she had to use a red iodine to prevent an infection -- it looked like a bloody mess, which I accurately scared my mother with when she came back in the room. Hey, when you're in the hospital for five days you need a little comical relief. :)

But what the echo showed was fabulous: the SVAS is completely gone -- how strange is that?? The pulmonary stenosis is still there, very mild and slowly lessening, but will be followed by echo, of course. It also showed that there is a little aortic leaking -- which I don't understand but apparently is common and not a big deal. Really?? It seems a little freaky to me, but I'll go with it.

We had a lot of visitors today; Kathleen and Cooper came over, along with Grandma, Josh, Pa, Doris and Amy. Teresa and baby Violet came which was extra special so I could meet the newest little one. She's so tiny -- Teresa kept reminding me "She's only three weeks, Kerry!" but she made Brady look so big - not an easy feat!