Thursday, April 8, 2010

because on the roller coaster of asher's life, ups and downs aren't enough, so he threw in a delightful corkscrew...

so, EP finally and officially ok'd the pacemaker, and we were going to be going in today.

then they did bloodwork.

and checked his INR (clotting time, since he's on blood thinners).

and it was too high (he doesn't clot easily enough).

so...

surgery has been post-poned. which means... more waiting. so far, we're on Day 7 of this admission, and at this rate, we're going to be here for at least another week.

i was chatting with maricor (the surgical co-ordinator) in the hall this morning. that's right, she saw me walking along, and she stopped to talk to me... because she knows who i am. you know you're here too much when... ugh. anyway, right now it looks like tuesday will be the day.

till then, they're withholding the warfarin and just making sure asher doesn't hit his head on anything... although i don't think it would be a problem even if he did, since he smashed his head on the table last week when he fainted, and there wasn't even a mark. so we're probably good for that. but it would still be waaaaaaay too risky to do surgery in a kid who doesn't clot, so we're waiting. "obviously," quoth dr russell on rounds this morning, "if we need to do something sooner, we will, but the plan is to wait and make sure the INR comes down on its own." sigh...

so that's the plan right now. hold off on the warfarin, probably more bloodwork in a couple days, and surgery on tuesday. the date's not carved in stone yet, but that's the word on the street... or ward, as the case may be.

please hold us both in the Light over the next few days. asher's HR is still low, and i'm exhausted in every sense of the word. it's just getting to be a bit much for me. i really need a break right now. :( so yeah... that's what we need right now. patience, rest, peace, a change of scenery (for heather) and a heart that beats (for asher). thanks so much.

all that being said, we had a delightful opportunity to give back a bit this morning, which, of course i jumped at, given my beliefs about stewardship and all that. (i believe we have a responsibility to use what we've been given to help others, and we've been given a boy with a very unusual heart, and because of that, we're often given opportunities to further research and such.) this morning, dr golding approached me about allowing him to use asher to educate some medical students on examining young children. of course i said yes, and i think those poor kids didn't know what to make of us! lol when they came in, asher wasn't afraid or nervous of anything, just played with his toys while they "looked for his breakfast" in his tummy (honestly, at this point, they could have said, "i'm just listening to your stomach and looking for your liver" and asher wouldn't have minded, but he's not exactly the norm...) and took his deep breaths. apparently, asher was a great one for them to learn on, since they could actually feel his liver. apparently, that's not normal... but everyone has always found asher's liver pretty easily. not where it's supposed to be, mind you... just the other week it was 6 to 8 cm lower than it should be, but that's good. now these kids will know what they're feeling for. i had to explain asher's condition, his other issues, what we're in for this time, his development and growth, that sort of thing. probably a little overwhelming for a bunch of students, but hey, if you want to be a doctor, you're going to meet kids with wonky physiology, so might as well start with the wonkiest heart possible, right? anyhoo, just thought i'd share that little story. ttyl! :)

3 comments:

Hope said...

Praying for you all and praying that Tuesday comes faster than normal. xoxox

Rachelle said...

Heather,

We're praying for Asher, you and your family, and your friends. My students pray with me everyday for Asher. Hope everything goes well over the next couple of days.
Rachelle

Anonymous said...

Hope there will be more uplifting days in your and Asher's future.