Joseph is out of surgery and is in recovery. The doctor said that the procedure went well but the narrowing of the aorta was worse than expected. The angioplasty could not open the aorta as much as they would have liked. We will get more information and post it in the next few days. For now Joseph is safe and he tolerated the procedure well. We will be able to go home with him this evening and Joseph will not have to spend the night.
Kenny
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
in surgery
Joseph went into surgery at 7:20. The doctor will talk to us at about 9:20. Joseph was very good this morning.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Surgery on Tuesday
This past Monday, Mary and I took Joseph to the cardiologist for his check up. While the doctors are very happy with his growth and strong heart, there is still a narrowing of the aorta that needs to be dealt with. In consultation with the ENT surgeon, they have decided to postpone the surgery to remove the nasal tubes and instead do the angioplasty on Tuesday November 27. It is scheduled for 7am and they may keep Joseph overnight just to be sure everything is OK.
This change of plans has taken a little getting used to. We are just not quite ready for another procedure for his heart. Compared to his heart surgery this is a minor procedure, but somehow that fact is not very comforting. Joseph is so happy and looks so very healthy that we still reject the notion that anything is wrong. However, we have seen the blood pressure difference that indicates that his aorta need to be opened up some more. So, on Tuesday morning we will head down to Childrens Hospital and once again wait it out while he undergoes surgery. In this procedure they enter the femoral artery in the leg and pass a catheter up into his heart. After checking to make sure everything is OK with his ticker they will take some x-rays using dye and get the exact measurements for the balloon procedure. They will then pass a balloon into the artery and up to the aorta and expand it ever so quickly to stretch out the narrowed part of the aorta. The whole procedure will take about an hour, but from when we hand him over to when we get him back will be about 3 hours. Those are hours we do not look forward to.
Once again we will rely on the community of friends and family to bolster our spirits. We are forever grateful.
Kenny and Mary
This change of plans has taken a little getting used to. We are just not quite ready for another procedure for his heart. Compared to his heart surgery this is a minor procedure, but somehow that fact is not very comforting. Joseph is so happy and looks so very healthy that we still reject the notion that anything is wrong. However, we have seen the blood pressure difference that indicates that his aorta need to be opened up some more. So, on Tuesday morning we will head down to Childrens Hospital and once again wait it out while he undergoes surgery. In this procedure they enter the femoral artery in the leg and pass a catheter up into his heart. After checking to make sure everything is OK with his ticker they will take some x-rays using dye and get the exact measurements for the balloon procedure. They will then pass a balloon into the artery and up to the aorta and expand it ever so quickly to stretch out the narrowed part of the aorta. The whole procedure will take about an hour, but from when we hand him over to when we get him back will be about 3 hours. Those are hours we do not look forward to.
Once again we will rely on the community of friends and family to bolster our spirits. We are forever grateful.
Kenny and Mary
Monday, November 19, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
We wish you a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving this week. This will be Joseph's first Thanksgiving celebration and we asked him what he is thankful for. This is what he told us:
I am thankful for,
1. All the prayers
2. All my family and friends that I have not even met
3. The gifts I have received
4. All the notes I received
5. My four sisters who try so hard to take care of me
6. The great surgeons
7. The great nurses and staff
8. Children's Hospital Los Angeles
9. My mom who does soooo much (he is such a softy--he started to cry when he mentioned how much he loves his mom)
10. My grandparents
11. The gift of life
12. Small miracles
13. That God loves me.
Joseph has given us the gift of perspective. After all he has been through for the first three months of his life, we know what is important. We are thankful for life itself---
This Thanksgiving, join us as we raise a glass and toast life and the love we are meant to share with one another.
God Bless,
Joseph and Family
I am thankful for,
1. All the prayers
2. All my family and friends that I have not even met
3. The gifts I have received
4. All the notes I received
5. My four sisters who try so hard to take care of me
6. The great surgeons
7. The great nurses and staff
8. Children's Hospital Los Angeles
9. My mom who does soooo much (he is such a softy--he started to cry when he mentioned how much he loves his mom)
10. My grandparents
11. The gift of life
12. Small miracles
13. That God loves me.
Joseph has given us the gift of perspective. After all he has been through for the first three months of his life, we know what is important. We are thankful for life itself---
This Thanksgiving, join us as we raise a glass and toast life and the love we are meant to share with one another.
God Bless,
Joseph and Family
A Short Note
All is well, but for some unknown reason, I could not log on to the Blog yesterday. I will write the blog tonight and it will be available Tuesday.
kenny
kenny
Monday, November 12, 2007
A fine week
This has been a fine week. Nothing really eventful happened and that makes for a good week. It was a time to catch up a little and to begin to prepare for the Holiday Season. Joseph has been great and had no issues this week. He smiles all the time and still sleeps very well. Here is a current video of him:
As you can see he is doing well. His surgery to remove his tubes is now set for November 28. This is just a slight change and it could change again. Mary talked to the cardiologist and they have some new technology that allows them to do angioplasty at an earlier age. Joseph may have his angioplasty as soon as December. We will just have to see how this plays out. In the mean time Joseph and his family are content to just hang out. We really miss seeing friends and family, but the time to be out and about as a family will be here soon enough. Joseph did not watch any NASCAR this weekend but he caught just a little bit of football before his afternoon nap:
Happy November to all!
Thank you for all the prayers.
Kenny, Mary and the family
Sunday, November 4, 2007
15 percent
I have not wanted to write this post. Since Monday I have avoided writing. The plan was to get through the surgery to remove the nasal tubes and end the blog. All would be well and we could move on. But plans do not always go "as planned." I have heard several times in the last few years, "If you want to make God laugh--Just tell him your plans." The plan has changed. We have another issue to confront.
This past Monday we took Joseph to see the cardiologist. At first we received great news. Joseph is thriving. He is over 13 pounds and 24 1/2 inches in length. In just a month and a half since his leaving the hospital he has gone from 25th percentile in weight to 75th percentile. He is happy and doing well. Then came his echo-cardiogram. The technician looked concerned. I asked if everything looked OK and got the line I have learned not to like; "the doctor will explain it to you." In fairness to the technicians that run this test, they are not allowed to give opinions--only the doctors can. But having been through this procedure before you can certainly get a sense that something is not quite right. Mary and I exchanged nervous glances and waited for the doctor. Fortunately, the cardiologist is truly outstanding. He is caring and he is one of the professors in this amazing teaching hospital. He broke the news to us as easily as he could. Joseph's aorta had narrowed again. The doctor anticipated our first thought. He assured us that there would not be a need for another open heart surgery. This could be taken care of in other ways. Because Joseph had emergency heart surgery at three weeks old there is a higher possibility for complications to develop. Fifteen percent of the infants that have their aorta repaired for a narrowing like Joseph had, develop further narrowing. Joseph falls in the 15 percent group. His aorta has narrowed. The first time around this was life threatening because his heart was inefficient due to the pair of holes that needed repair. Joseph's heart is doing very well now and is very efficient. This is not life threatening but this gives him high blood pressure in his upper body. The blood pressure is supposed to be the same in the upper and lower body, but his is 17 points apart.
So-------what does this mean?---how do we fix this? The medical answer is a long term issue. They will deal with it first with angioplasty. It would be best to make it to a year before angioplasty but Joseph will probably have the procedure in December or January. Angioplasty is a procedure where a tiny balloon is inserted in his artery in his leg and fed up to the narrowing in the aorta. The balloon is then inflated and this opens up his aorta. This may have to be done a few times to get him to around age 8. At about 8 years old he can have a stent inserted in the aorta to keep it wide open. As he reaches his late teens the stent can be expanded to full adult opening and then he is good for life. At least ---that's the plan.
The spiritual answer is: "just keep praying." That came directly from several Carmelite sisters I spoke to this weekend. The Carmelites had their Fall Festival on Saturday and I was able to take the girls there. As I updated the sisters on Joseph's condition, I was reminded to keep on praying and to rest assured that the sisters pray for Joseph every day. It was great to be reminded that Joseph has friends in high places. I was surprised by a sister I did not recognize as we were leaving. She was dressed in white and walked straight up to me. She looked me right in the eye and said, "Mr. Lund, why don't you just pray to Mother Luisita? She needs a miracle to be canonized and Joseph needs a miracle." I was struck by her directness and calmed by her conviction. I responded that Joseph had a picture of Mother Luisita on his bed in the hospital and that we would continue to pray for her intervention. I would be more than thrilled to have her canonized for a miracle for Joseph. Mother Luisita is the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. More info on her process to become a saint is at http://www.saintjoecenter.com/makesaint.html. I invite you to join me in prayer to Mother Luisita to intervene on behalf of Joseph and bring him another miracle.
Life is still good and we will follow this path to wherever it takes us. We continue to walk the path with family and friends at our side and for that we will always be grateful. Thank you for your prayers and support.
Kenny
P.S. Here is a shot of Joseph hanging out with his sisters.
This past Monday we took Joseph to see the cardiologist. At first we received great news. Joseph is thriving. He is over 13 pounds and 24 1/2 inches in length. In just a month and a half since his leaving the hospital he has gone from 25th percentile in weight to 75th percentile. He is happy and doing well. Then came his echo-cardiogram. The technician looked concerned. I asked if everything looked OK and got the line I have learned not to like; "the doctor will explain it to you." In fairness to the technicians that run this test, they are not allowed to give opinions--only the doctors can. But having been through this procedure before you can certainly get a sense that something is not quite right. Mary and I exchanged nervous glances and waited for the doctor. Fortunately, the cardiologist is truly outstanding. He is caring and he is one of the professors in this amazing teaching hospital. He broke the news to us as easily as he could. Joseph's aorta had narrowed again. The doctor anticipated our first thought. He assured us that there would not be a need for another open heart surgery. This could be taken care of in other ways. Because Joseph had emergency heart surgery at three weeks old there is a higher possibility for complications to develop. Fifteen percent of the infants that have their aorta repaired for a narrowing like Joseph had, develop further narrowing. Joseph falls in the 15 percent group. His aorta has narrowed. The first time around this was life threatening because his heart was inefficient due to the pair of holes that needed repair. Joseph's heart is doing very well now and is very efficient. This is not life threatening but this gives him high blood pressure in his upper body. The blood pressure is supposed to be the same in the upper and lower body, but his is 17 points apart.
So-------what does this mean?---how do we fix this? The medical answer is a long term issue. They will deal with it first with angioplasty. It would be best to make it to a year before angioplasty but Joseph will probably have the procedure in December or January. Angioplasty is a procedure where a tiny balloon is inserted in his artery in his leg and fed up to the narrowing in the aorta. The balloon is then inflated and this opens up his aorta. This may have to be done a few times to get him to around age 8. At about 8 years old he can have a stent inserted in the aorta to keep it wide open. As he reaches his late teens the stent can be expanded to full adult opening and then he is good for life. At least ---that's the plan.
The spiritual answer is: "just keep praying." That came directly from several Carmelite sisters I spoke to this weekend. The Carmelites had their Fall Festival on Saturday and I was able to take the girls there. As I updated the sisters on Joseph's condition, I was reminded to keep on praying and to rest assured that the sisters pray for Joseph every day. It was great to be reminded that Joseph has friends in high places. I was surprised by a sister I did not recognize as we were leaving. She was dressed in white and walked straight up to me. She looked me right in the eye and said, "Mr. Lund, why don't you just pray to Mother Luisita? She needs a miracle to be canonized and Joseph needs a miracle." I was struck by her directness and calmed by her conviction. I responded that Joseph had a picture of Mother Luisita on his bed in the hospital and that we would continue to pray for her intervention. I would be more than thrilled to have her canonized for a miracle for Joseph. Mother Luisita is the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. More info on her process to become a saint is at http://www.saintjoecenter.com/makesaint.html. I invite you to join me in prayer to Mother Luisita to intervene on behalf of Joseph and bring him another miracle.
Life is still good and we will follow this path to wherever it takes us. We continue to walk the path with family and friends at our side and for that we will always be grateful. Thank you for your prayers and support.
Kenny
P.S. Here is a shot of Joseph hanging out with his sisters.
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