Good news always has bad news

Good news: After being at  St. Joe's for 3 hours, his Cardiologist, Dr. Pophal, and the rest of his team decided that Tyson does not have to have surgery on his heart as of right now!!  His gradient level, which determines the pressure in and out of the heart, was at 47.  That was down 3 points from the last appt 5 weeks ago, although it's not the best number it still isn't the worst.  Pophal said that unfortunatley we are not out of the woods just yet, that Tyson's gradient trend has shown as high as 75 and as low as 20 since his heart surgery in November.  This means that it could get worse, but for now we are being optomistic and taking each appointment for what it's worth and not worry about what might happen.  Of course we were given about 500 scenarios (not really but you get the point) of what could happen, but if we worry too much of what might happen it will completely consume us and will miss out on the greatest gift ever which is our kids!  So, we are taking this as a step in the right direction and we'll see them in 4 months!  They are also weaning him off his meds so we are now down to Zantac twice daily and Lasix once a day---may not be a huge change, but it's a good start!!

Thanks for the prayers on Thursday, they were finally answered!!

Now for the not-so-good-news, his chest is still not healed.  We met with the Surgeon a couple weeks ago and he said that the knot of sutures has not dissolved and is trying to come through.  We were given the choice of surgery or let it come on it's own, but if we wait that can cause infections and could take months.  We wanted to wait to make the decision until we knew if he was going to have to have the Cath-Procedure/Surgery that way we wouldn't have to put him under anesthesia twice.  So on Thursday while we were at his appointment everyone decided that it would be best for him to have the procedure done and yes he will have to be put under again.  There are of course many risks to being put under anesthesia and we wanted everyone's input especially his Cardiologist to help us determin what we should do.  With that being said, he will go in on Tuesday, February 16th at 5am and they will begin around 7:30am.  Tyson will be intibated and we're hoping and praying that he does not stop breathing once extubated like last time, good news is that he does not have to be put on bypass and if all goes well he will be discharged that evening or the next morning. 

We're hoping for a quick in-and-out day at the hospital and we will definitely keep you all updated!