We didn't sleep as good as we wanted to last night. No pain, no interruptions from nurses to take blood pressures or administer sleeping meds.... no, the problem was that since Cannon's chest tubes are out, the little gurgling collection boxes are gone. They made the sweetest aquarium sound that put you to sleep. We all sleep with fans, so not having fans or the constant gurgling noise was problematic. And THAT is the worst issue we've had to deal with in the last 12 hours. It's AWESOME!!
We just finished our last doctors rounds discussion. All the doctors and nurses are thrilled with his progress. They should be, they've all done a great job. And the Champ has been outstanding! He never complained, just took the challenges as they came and gave all he had. He wants to recover ASAP, and he's willing to put the effort behind the goal.
The result of the discussion:
- Cannon WON'T be on beta blockers. Dr. Lam (and team, I'm sure) says Cannon's pressures are much better than originally indicated as they re-started his heart. When they were feeding him "rocket fuel" to get the heart going again, they didn't like the pressures in the aorta. His aorta has an "offset" in it, and the quick change of flow direction causes resistance that builds up pressure when the heart is at a high rate. However, they like his blood pressure now and don't think the pressures they saw inside the heart are a cause for concern.
- Cannon will be on aspirin forever to preserve the valve/conduit.
- We're hoping to get 12-14 years out of this setup. It may be shorter than that (ie less than 10).
- Mama and I may be retired before we have to do this again ;-)
- Future technology may allow for his valve to be replaced via a cath, but he's not a candidate for this type of procedure as technology stands today. The technology may advance enough in 10 years that he'll be a candidate at that point.
- But that said, the surgeon previously mentioned that the conduit will almost certainly need to be replaced and that'll require an open-heart procedure.
- We should be outta here shortly after lunch. The whole family is placing bets on the time. Papa is the most optimistic, Gupa is the most realistic, Carrie is the most undecided (you can't submit TWO times!) The rest of us are in between.
