Friends

We are feeling truly blessed right now! Caden had a good night's sleep last night at Ronald McDonald House. He didn't need any pain meds during the night but definitely needed some first thing this morning. He's just on regular children's Tylenol to manage the pain. It's crazy how good he feels considering he had open heart surgery four days ago!

We had a nice slow start to our morning and looked forward to our friends arriving to visit. Ryan, Suzanne and their kids, Brayden, Ellie and Olivia all came to spend the day with us. They brought lunch for us to eat together before we had to take Caden to the hospital for an echo.

 Caden holding the rose brought by our friends

Caden and "Auntie" Suzy

Like I mentioned in the post about discharge, we had to take Caden to the ER at Stanford today in order to have an echo done. The cardiology attending had arranged for them to give us a room and have an echo done as well as for a cardiology fellow to come do an exam. We got there a little after 12:30 and ended up being there about three hours! Nothing ever seems to go as planned! But, the doctors and nurses were all really nice. The cardiology fellow did his exam and said Caden looked good. But we had to wait a long time in order for them to do the echo. Then we had to wait for the official results and finally get the discharge put through to leave the ER.

In the echo they were mainly checking the fluid around Caden's heart. After heart surgery it is very common for there to be fluid build-up around the heart. And usually over time, this fluid is re-absorbed into the body. But they wanted to make sure that the fluid wasn't increasing because if it does, it could restrict the heart's ability to function fully. Since they wanted to be able to discharge us yesterday, and the clinic isn't open on the weekend, this was their solution.

Eating his popsicle in the ER while waiting for the echo

Greg and Caden hanging out waiting...

I ended up leaving to go back and meet up with our friends after a couple hours of waiting. Greg stayed with Caden and waited for the echo to be done. Shortly after I left, the echo tech came in and finished the echo but of course he couldn't give Greg any information. Then the cardiology fellow said unofficially everything looked good but they needed to get the official report before they could discharge. When that came back, they said everything looked good and we were set for the follow up in the clinic with the cardiology attending next Thursday morning.

Just before Greg and Caden got back from the ER, we had some more friend stop by to visit. Our friend Stacey and her fiancee Ron came by to visit for a little while. Ron is actually one of the nurses in the CVICU and came to visit us during his break on Caden's first night after surgery.

Ron with us the night of Caden's surgery

After Greg and Caden got back, we celebrated Caden with cake and ice cream that Ryan and Suzanne bought for the occasion. It was so fun to see him chowing down on the cake and getting it all over his face. Thank you for the cake!

 "Can I eat it yet?"

Chowing down on his celebratory cake!

As soon as we were done eating cake, Stacey and Ron needed to leave. So we quickly said our goodbyes and got pictures with them before they left. We really appreciate them taking the time to come visit us.

 Ron and Stacey with Caden  :)

 Suzanne, Olivia, Greg, Me, Caden, Stacey and Ellie

Then the rest of us were hungry again for dinner, so we walked across the street from RMH to Chipotle in the Stanford Shopping Center. It was the first time I've really been away from the hospital or a hotel in the last week and it was wonderful. When we were done there, we walked back to RMH and had to say goodbye to our dear friends. Thank you so much for coming to spend the day with us. We had such a good time celebrating Caden's surgery success with you! We're just sorry we lost so much time in the middle of the day due to the visit to the ER. :( We are so grateful for your love, support and prayers.

Ryan, Suzanne, Olivia, Caden, Ellie and Brayden

Just as they were leaving, another wonderful friend came to visit. Julia was Caden's first physical therapist and started working with him when he was only a few months old. Over the years we became good friends and it means so much to me that she took the time out of her busy schedule to come over and visit. She also was a prayer warrior for us and Caden during this time in our lives. Thank you so much Julia!

 Julia holding Caden

All that made for a very busy day with not much rest for Caden so he was pretty exhausted tonight as he got ready for bed. I'm praying he has another good night's sleep. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we try to help him stay calm and not overdo things. He's having a hard time being calm. He is trying to run around and be a “typical” four-year-old. He keeps trying to raise his arms above his head, and trying to throw balls with both hands over his head. Things he shouldn't be doing. I guess I should be grateful he's feeling well enough to do that. But I am so worried about him hurting himself or causing further injury. The next 6 weeks are going to be very stressful in terms of having him take it easy and give his body a rest.