Lake Tahoe

I'm sure many of you remember my recent post about our cardiologist wanting us to attempt a weekend at Lake Tahoe with Caden to see how he handled the elevation. Well, actually he wanted to do a heart cath first and we said we would rather not. So this was the next option.

So, last Friday, we packed up the car and the kids and we drove up the mountain. I took a baseline O2 reading on Caden before we left the house so I had something to compare it to. His sats were 98-100. Then we started driving. When we hit 4000 feet, I took another reading. Caden was 94/95. I decided I would do the rest of us so I could compare everyone. Greg was 98, I was 92/93, and Kyler was 97/98. Not bad.

I took another reading at 5000 feet on Caden. He was 95. Greg was 98, I was 87, and Kyler was 95. (Are you seeing a trend that I have the lowest oxygen saturations in the family???)

Then as we went over the summits at elevations over 7000 feet, I took another reading on Caden. His sats were now in the upper-80's. I didn't love that, but figured we would be dropping down 1000 feet so I would get another reading once we got to the lake basin. When we got to the hotel, I took another reading and Caden was stable at 94%. I was quite happy with that. Basically as long as he is over 93% the docs are happy. When I checked my own sats though, they were still in the mid-80's. Go figure! I had no idea my sats fluctuated that much with elevation. We've never had a pulse-ox to use on any prior trips to altitude so I had no way of knowing that.

Of course it does make me wonder if there is an underlying problem. In fact, I have recently been considering getting an echo because I want to make sure my heart is working properly. I think Greg should get an echo as well. After all, we have two children with congenital heart defects and it is possible one or both of us have an undiagnosed CHD.

And, I have a friend through our heart support group who just found out she had an undiagnosed CHD. She is 28 years old. Her daughter, who turns 3 this month, has hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has undergone two open heart surgeries with the third one scheduled for July. But the mom never had any idea she had a CHD until April this year at which point they scheduled her for surgery on May 4. It's amazing how fast your life can change. I figure it can't hurt me and Greg to have echos to rule it out for ourselves. After all, we need to know if we have a problem because we need to be here to take care of our children.

Anyway, I took another saturation reading on Caden and myself before bed on Friday night. His sats were 93 and mine were 96. His were borderline based on where his docs want him, so I put him on oxygen overnight. After I took the oxygen off this morning, he was at 93 again. His breathing sounded good and there was no wheezing so that was good.

We had breakfast and then we all went down to the beach. We are staying right on the state line between California and Nevada. It is a “private” beach but the hotel we stayed at gave us a beach pass so we could access it. We spent a couple hours down there Saturday morning with the boys. Then I took Caden back to the room to feed him and put him down for a nap. His sats before his nap were fluctuating between 91-93 so I put the oxygen on him for his nap.

Greg and Kyler went to the swimming pool and stayed there for a couple hours. The weather was gorgeous and the sun was hot! Kyler was having a ball playing in the water, especially the hot tub, even though it was so hot. I spent the early afternoon in the hotel room with Caden while he napped.

After Caden got up from his nap, we ate and then we went on an evening walk around the casino area and through Heavenly Village. It was still pretty hot though.

Saturday night before putting Caden to bed, I checked his sats again and they were 94. We decided to leave him off oxygen and monitor his sats overnight. We figured that was kind of the point of the trip. I got up at midnight and checked him again and he was at 97! I was so excited! Then when he got up in the morning on Sunday his saturations were 96. That was so good to see. He did so well handling the elevation.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and packed up the car. Then we headed to the recreation area to let Kyler burn off some energy before we got in the car to drive home. He and Greg had fun playing tag and hide & seek in and around the trees. So cute!

I would say it was a really good weekend trip. It was so nice to have relaxing family time together without anything on the agenda. And, since Caden did so well, we were all able to enjoy ourselves. We played on the beach, climbed rocks, swam in the pool and walked around. Overall fun. Great way to recharge our batteries.

Now I need to report to Dr. Van Gundy to let him know how the weekend went and see what he says. Will he clear Caden for air travel? What will he suggest next? Who knows? But, at least our trial run to elevation was a success!

Here are a few pics of our weekend. :)