There's No Place Like Home...

Thanks so much for everyone's prayers.  We really appreciated all the calls, emails, messages and texts! :)  It is so nice to know so many are thinking about and praying for Andrew.  Reading all the messages kept me busy while waiting for the procedure to be completed.  Thank you so much!

Andrew was just in the best mood all day.  He woke up happy as a lark and never once asked to eat.  He cuddled in bed with us and then I moved into his bed with him and he read me a story (yes, he can read now! Ha!) :)  More about that later... anyway, we were able to distract him with his trains (his new favorite thing to play with). 

When we got there he was in such a good mood that I really wanted to try to do the test without sedation.  He was flirting with the child life specialist and playing with all the toys, etc.  He was so happy.  I was so proud of how he behaved- he never ran from us (we are usually chasing him up and down the halls!  Ha!) and he held our hands every time we walked somewhere.  He did such a good job sitting on our laps and playing with his toys while we waited.  The poor little guy hadn't eaten since last night and he never complained or cried once.  He is getting to be so much more grown up and mature.  Not a baby anymore!

The child life specialist was showing him what the machine looked like, using a smaller replica and having Sheriff Woody lay down on the table.  She showed him how it took pictures of his heart.  He had fun playing with this for quite a while!

Well, when they came to do the IV, it was all downhill from there.  He freaked out when they were holding him down.  We couldn't distract him with bubbles, shiny toys or anything.  They had the IV in at one point, but he moved his hand and it came out.  This was pretty traumatic for him, so at that point we all decided rather than attempting to poke him again and not being successful, we would go ahead with plans to sedate him.  I was a nervous wreck, but I knew it was for the best. 

The bad part about sedation (besides the risks we won't talk about!) is the fact that we don't get to stay with him throughout the scan.  Had he been awake, they would have let us stay.  This meant I had to pry myself away after they put him under using the scary mask over his face, which is almost worse torture than the IV was.  We had to wait in the surgery waiting area, an all too familiar place.  I was slightly unhappy (that is putting it mildly, just ask Craig!) because it was supposed to take 30 minutes, and we didn't hear anything for over an hour.  Turns out, they had taken him to the first recovery room and had him wake up without us being there.  Yeah, I was NOT happy.  In Iowa City we always get to be there the second they roll him out of the room so when he wakes up the first thing he sees is our faces.  When we were finally told we could go to see him, I could tell he had been awake for a while, as a nurse was holding him and walking around the room with him, trying to console him.  All I can hear is him screaming, "Mama!  Mama!"  My heart pretty much broke.  Are they nuts?  Nobody can console him but Mama.

I scooped him up right away and he immediately snuggled into me- the best feeling in the world.  They gave him some apple juice and crackers, which he promptly threw up on the way home.  Yeah, add cleaning the car and car seat to my long list of things to do this weekend!  Gotta love that sedation. 

He is napping now after a bath and some toast.  He's happy to be home.  We all are.  We are so grateful everything went well (for the most part!)

We won't know any results probably until Monday.  I called Dr. M and he said he'd give me a call when they know something.  We are praying for good results so we can put the cath off even longer!

Thanks again for all of your support.  We really appreciated all the messages.  It helps so much to know how many people are thinking of us and praying for Andrew.

Sleep tight, my sweet, sweet boy...