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| Most Recent Updates January 2003- Present |
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| February 25 - It is a busy time in the Smith house. Jason is walking all over the house with his walker. He got it in the beginning of January and has taken to it like a duck to water. Zachary is enjoying preschool and is learning to write his name. He does wonderful drawings and crafts. Jason is eating like crazy. He seems to actually be getting FAT. Can you believe how far we have come!! March will be a very busy month for us. Jason has his pre surgery Angiogram on Friday 3/7 and then he will have the Fontan completion at the end of March. We are nervous, but he gets out of breath very easily, so we know it is time. Wish us well and we will be doing more frequent updates in the weeks to come. Thanks to everyone - Rob |
| March 7 - 4:00 pm - Jason had his catheterisation today. It went very well. The doctor said that his heart is working fine and that everything went well. They did find a large colateral vessel that they put a coil in to block off. This is very common with kids like Jason. He is now almost back to normal, ordering Felice and Miya around and being waited on had and foot. They will let him go first thing tomorrow morning. - Rob |
| March 13 - We were hoping that we would get a date for the surgery today but it turns out that the narrowing in Jason's pulmunary artery is causing probelms with the decision making on the surgery. Apparently, the narrowing is in a position that is difficult for the surgeon to get at. So the surgeon wants to do a lung profusion scan to see how much blood is going to each lung. I think that the surgeon would prefer not to fix this and let the cardiologist fix it during a catheterization a few weeks after the surgery. This is not a show stopper just a bump in the road. They are now saying the surgery will be in May or June. We will put up an update when we know more.- Rob |
| March 23 - We have a date for Jason's surgery. We will be first case on Wednesday April 30th. It is good that we finally have a day, but it is hard since it is 5 weeks away. I know that I will not get any good sleep between now and then. Tomorrow, we have the lung profusion scan. This will tell us who will fix the narrowing in Jason's pulmanary artery. - Rob |
| April 21I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. We did. The boys enjoyed having their whole family together. We went to the farmer's auction last Wednesday and came home with 3 bunnies and 5 chicks. I think that mommy had more fun than the boys. We have a lot of BIG news. Jason has gone peepee and stinky on the potty. I think he really has some control; now we just have to deal with the communication issue. We elected to move Jason's surgery up to Thursday of this week. The surgeon's office called and said they had a cancellation and even though this is harder than anything; we just knew it was in everyone's best interest to take advantage of this opportunity. Jason gets cuter everyday. He is pulling to stand on everything. He and Zachary are much more interactive. Oh the joy of brotherly collusion!! As for the lung scan, the test results were odd, but acceptable and they will wait to deal with the narrowing. We are first case on Thursday and will update everyone as able. Thank you all so much!! Love, The Smiths. . |
| April 28- Sorry, this is so late for those of you whose personal E-mail address I do not have, but Jason's surgery was moved back to the 30 th of April. A little one was born who needed that slot so we went back to our original day, very happily if you ask mommmy. We have pre-op tomorrow morning and then come home for a dinner at Applebee's. Zachary will be going to baseball practice with his buddy Riley to see how he likes it. Everyone is back to school again, except me , of course. Jason had his preschool eval today and worked very hard, but after over 2 hours, he had had it and said this is it. I AM DONE, REALLY DONE ! He was still crying when we made it to the car and fell asleep before we got to McDonald's so we went after he woke up. I can't wait till this is behind us. Thnk of what the summer will bring. I believe the surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM. I will know for sure tomorrow. Thanks!! Felice |
| April 30- 10:00am - We just got an update, Jason is on the heart lung machine and the surgery is going well. Jason enjoyed his kiddy cocktail of versed this morning. He was a real trooper. He did not cry at all. We expect that he will be in his room between 12 and 2. More Later - Rob |
| April 30 - 12:20pm - We were just told that they are sewing in the shunt right now. That means that the major "work" of the surgery is almost done. They say we should see him in about 2 hours. - Rob |
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| April 30 - 2:45pm - The doctor just came down and said that the surgery is done and everything went great. He is doing great and will be up in his recovery room by 3:00. - Geof |
| April 30 - 6:45pm - Jason is in the PICU and is off in La La Land for the night thinking of little bunnies and chicks. He is going to remain intubated and sedated tonight to keep him calm and give him a good nights rest. His stats are good. He has great color! His little hands are nice and rosey and he looks awesome!!! Felice is staying with Jason overnight. More tomorrow. - Geof |
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| May 1 - 11:30 am - Jason is doing well. They are giving him plenty of fluids to get him rehydrated. They are going to keep him sedated and on the vent all day to allow him to recover, rest and get used to his new circulation. - Geof |
| May 2 - 5?:30 am - Jason has been taken off of the paralytic meds but is still pretty sedated. He was somewhat coherent and signing a bit(looking for a 4 wheeler ride no doubt) but he has been tugging at the tubes and so the mischievous one has been sedated again. They expect that he will be off of the ventilator by sometime on Sunday but until then he will continue to adjust to the new circulation. Everything is going pretty much as planned and he is recovering well. Zach is up for a visit and surely will liven up the PICU a bit. - Geof |