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Shadbolt

Ontario, Canada

Recent Activity

Five months later

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. I hope anyone who was checking here was living by the adage of "no news is good news." Truthfully, I haven't posted because we have been too busy enjoying life as a family. Christopher is 10 months old and doing great. He had... Continue reading

Posted Apr 13, 2012 at Christopher's heart

1

Christopher's cardiologist weighs in

Just a little update from yesterday: Christopher's usual cardiologist called this afternoon. He was unexpectedly away while we were at CHEO, so we didn't get to see him then. However, he kindly called this afternoon to review the results of the echo they did yesterday before sending us home. The... Continue reading

Posted Nov 18, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

Cardiac catheterization

Christopher's cardiac catheterization was yesterday. We arrived at the hospital bright and early (7:30 a.m.) and he was checked in and changed into pink striped hospital pyjamas. Then we did a fair bit of waiting around until just before 9:00, when the anesthesiologist and the anesthesia resident showed up to... Continue reading

Posted Nov 17, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

Neurology appointment

I took Christopher for his follow-up appointment with his neurologist today. I'm happy to report that it went really well! The neurologist was very pleased with his progress. He agrees that there's no sign of any deficit at the moment, which is great news. He told me that Christopher's brain... Continue reading

Posted Nov 9, 2011 at Christopher's heart

0

Catheter is booked

We were at CHEO on Tuesday to see Christopher's cardiologist. His blood pressures are, as expected, still quite different between his two arms, but there was no change in the readings from his previous appointment. This is good news, because it suggests that the narrowed spot on his aorta isn't... Continue reading

Posted Nov 2, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

Christopher had his echocardiogram today, under sedation so they could get more accurate pictures. The sedation went fairly well and they were able to get some nice pictures. The results aren't what we were hoping for, though: there is indeed new narrowing at the site of his original surgery. The... Continue reading

Posted Oct 24, 2011 at Christopher's heart

0

Re-coarctation?

Christopher had his regular cardiology follow-up appointment yesterday. The news is a bit mixed: his heart function still looks great, and the spot where the GoreTex patch was occluding flow is continuing to improve. But there is new narrowing in his aorta at the site of his first surgery. This... Continue reading

Posted Oct 19, 2011 at Christopher's heart

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It's been a while

Well, no posts for a while on here, but for a good reason: life has been pretty uneventful, health-wise. Christopher is growing like crazy and is deliciously pudgy right now. He was just a hair under 17 pounds at his 4-month appointment. He's also meeting his developmental milestones so far... Continue reading

Posted Oct 19, 2011 at Christopher's heart

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What a great day! Christopher had his cardiology appointment and echocardiogram and the news is wonderful! His aorta is improving, and his heart function has recovered. I feel like I'm on cloud nine. The way that they assess the degree of blockage caused by the pucker in the GoreTex patch... Continue reading

Posted Sep 13, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

Christopher ended up having his follow-up appointment at CHEO last Friday instead of yesterday, because he had another one of his pale episodes on Thursday. I called the cardiologist and he asked us to come in sooner. The echo done on Friday showed basically no change. The occlusion from the... Continue reading

Posted Aug 29, 2011 at Christopher's heart

0

Cardiologist update

I spoke to Christopher's cardiologist by phone yesterday. He reviewed the results of the MRI with me and confirmed that the puckered spot on the GoreTex patch is causing about a 50% blockage in that area. He said that he had reviewed Christopher's case with the other cardiologists at CHEO,... Continue reading

Posted Aug 24, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

Finally boring!

Still no news from the cardiologist. He is supposed to be back next week so we are trying to be patient while we wait to hear. Christopher had his first physiotherapy appointment today. I am thrilled to report that the physiotherapist found him totally boring! I mean that in the... Continue reading

Posted Aug 17, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

Christopher's MRI was today. Everything went really well. We were a bit early and the MRI was running a bit behind, so he ended up not going for the scan until after 11 - at which point he had been fasting for five hours. Poor baby! However, we have jumped... Continue reading

Posted Aug 10, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

MRI appointment

Christopher's MRI is booked for this Wednesday. We have to be there at 9 a.m. for the pre-anesthetic stuff, and the actual scan is at 10. I'm not sure how long it will take, but the MRI of his head took 45 minutes, so I'm guessing the same or a... Continue reading

Posted Aug 6, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

Christopher had his echocardiogram yesterday. His cardiologist wanted him sedated so that they could look very carefully at the 'interesting' area of his aorta. Because of the sedation, he wasn't allowed to eat for four hours before the procedure, which made a very grumpy boy. However, the sedation went well... Continue reading

Posted Jul 27, 2011 at Christopher's heart

1

We had another follow-up appointment with cardiology today and I'm not actually sure how it went. Christopher's blood pressure seemed a bit high (around 110) but we had a really hard time getting him settled down, so it's hard to know if that's an accurate measurement. And they saw "something"... Continue reading

Posted Jul 22, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

Christopher had his first outpatient follow-up appointment with the cardiologist and cardiovascular surgeon today, and I am pleased to report that all is well! What a lovely change from the last time we went for a check-up and ended up staying for another nine days. When they first measured his... Continue reading

Posted Jul 15, 2011 at Christopher's heart

4

That's right, we're home! Christopher and I had a good night (despite a bit of a noisy roommate), and his blood pressure and oxygen levels were great this morning. So, his doctors decided it was reasonable for us to head home today! We were so pleasantly surprised. It took most... Continue reading

Posted Jul 12, 2011 at Christopher's heart

6

Moving on up...

We’ve graduated from the PICU to the ward. We had another good day. Christopher had a bit of a fussy night but settled right away this morning when they let him breastfeed again. He did really well and has breastfed the rest of the day. They took out his feeding... Continue reading

Posted Jul 11, 2011 at Christopher's heart

8

We’ve had a good day today. Christopher actually got to breastfeed a bit yesterday, but he seemed to tire quite quickly and then would start to choke, so the decision was made to put his feeding tube back in and feed him that way overnight so he could rest. I... Continue reading

Posted Jul 10, 2011 at Christopher's heart

7

Rollercoaster day

What a day. We had a great day yesterday and even got to hold Christopher before we went home for the night. It was lovely to have him in our arms again. When we came in this morning, we heard that he had a great night and a bunch of... Continue reading

Posted Jul 9, 2011 at Christopher's heart

7

Breathing on his own!

Great new: the breathing tube is out! It was removed around lunchtime today. Christopher struggled a bit for the first hour or so, but they gave him some medication to help reduce the swelling in his airway (the tube is quite irritating) and he has settled down nicely. He’s having... Continue reading

Posted Jul 8, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

Post-operative day 1

We’re having a fairly quiet day in the ICU, which is a very nice change from yesterday. Christopher did well overnight, with no new issues, and has stayed nice and stable today. He is certainly sicker now than he was after his first surgery, but that’s to be expected. His... Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2011 at Christopher's heart

2

Surgery, round two

I know many people are anxiously awaiting news so I wanted to post a quick update to let you know how things are. First off, right now, Christopher is doing well. Breathe a sigh of relief and take a minute to thank God, the universe, whoever you thank, because Someone... Continue reading

Posted Jul 6, 2011 at Christopher's heart

8

The day before surgery

Just a quick note tonight to let you all know that there’s not much change today. Christopher is definitely having some trouble feeding but managing to get enough – just not enough to feel really full, so he’s pretty cranky. Otherwise he looks pretty good today. We’ve spent the day... Continue reading

Posted Jul 5, 2011 at Christopher's heart

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