First things first: yesterday was Jayci's first day back to school. We absolutely LOVE Jayci's preschool, and this year they were kind enough to give us a full scholarship for 4 days a week. Before Caden was born, I was having doubts about sending her so many days, and I was planning on emailing them and telling them we changed our mind, and because I was slightly-over-emotional-about-my-baby-growing-up, wanted to switch her back to 3 days a week (last year she did 2). However, in the busyness of closing on our house and having a baby, I never ended up emailing them. And I'm convinced this is just one more way that God was providing for us in the whole situation with Caden. Because having Jayci in preschool 4 days a week is a total life-saver right now. Especially because she decided earlier this week that naps? She doesn't need them anymore. I beg to differ, however, especially based on her behavior sans nap.
I took a plethora of "first day of school" pictures. And let me just tell you how camera shy my little girl is. Or not at all. The pictures did, however, manage to re-activate the whole "slightly-over-emotional-about-my-baby-growing-up" thing. Because look how big she is . . . it's ridiculous!
After dropping Jayci off at school this morning, we headed back to CHOA for Caden's first cardiologist appointment. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as we pulled back up to the place where Caden fought for his life. Although the outcome is good so far for Caden and he's safe at home with us now, those couple weeks were the scariest of my life, and reliving them in my memory brings back some of the fear and other emotions that filled those days.
Caden had a EKG, they checked his blood pressure and oxygen levels, and he had another echocardiogram. The doctor explained that he always likes to do an echo at these first appointment because there are so often "landmines" that we wouldn't otherwise know about with recovering from such a big surgery. So that was reassuring going into the echo, because "landmine" is exactly what you want to hear about your son's heart. Or not.
They finished the echo and Caden's doctor (Dr. Sutherland) came back in to explain everything they found. First of all, his oxygen levels, blood pressure, and heart rate all looked perfect. And then he walked us through the echo and showed us every different part where they worked on Caden's little heart. It was astonishing, really, how much work they had to do to fix his heart. Dr. Sutherland exclaimed over and over again what a "world class" surgery this was, how major it was, and how only a few people/places in the world can even perform this type of surgery on a newborn.
And then he said: "this is what we'd call an excellent outcome for this surgery." Meaning that everything looks wonderful and his heart is working just wonderfully. There are still some things they are watching (like the left ventricle and some leaky valves), but nothing they are too concerned about overall. The doctor concluded by saying that Caden's surgery was miraculous, and that we should give Dr. Kanter a kiss on the forehead.
Now don't put it past me to give him that kiss on the forehead. I'm just not sure how Dr. Kanter would respond. And besides, I'm much more inclined to raise my hands in worship and thank the Great Physician, who we are convinced guided his hands and performed a miracle on sweet Caden's heart. We are praying that God gets ALL the glory for the way He healed Caden. And even though he will still need surgery in the future to replace his valve, we are hoping that won't have to be for another few years.
We are humbled to realize that God chose to heal Caden to bring Himself glory, and we are honored to be a part of that. At the same time we recognize that there might still be 'speed bumps' (I prefer that term to "land mines") along the way, and that he still has some more obstacles to overcome. But we are convinced that the Lord has big plans for Caden, and we are praying that his special little heart will draw hearts to Jesus all the days of his life.
"I am the LORD, who heals you" - Exodus 15:26
I took a plethora of "first day of school" pictures. And let me just tell you how camera shy my little girl is. Or not at all. The pictures did, however, manage to re-activate the whole "slightly-over-emotional-about-my-baby-growing-up" thing. Because look how big she is . . . it's ridiculous!
After dropping Jayci off at school this morning, we headed back to CHOA for Caden's first cardiologist appointment. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as we pulled back up to the place where Caden fought for his life. Although the outcome is good so far for Caden and he's safe at home with us now, those couple weeks were the scariest of my life, and reliving them in my memory brings back some of the fear and other emotions that filled those days.
Caden had a EKG, they checked his blood pressure and oxygen levels, and he had another echocardiogram. The doctor explained that he always likes to do an echo at these first appointment because there are so often "landmines" that we wouldn't otherwise know about with recovering from such a big surgery. So that was reassuring going into the echo, because "landmine" is exactly what you want to hear about your son's heart. Or not.
They finished the echo and Caden's doctor (Dr. Sutherland) came back in to explain everything they found. First of all, his oxygen levels, blood pressure, and heart rate all looked perfect. And then he walked us through the echo and showed us every different part where they worked on Caden's little heart. It was astonishing, really, how much work they had to do to fix his heart. Dr. Sutherland exclaimed over and over again what a "world class" surgery this was, how major it was, and how only a few people/places in the world can even perform this type of surgery on a newborn.
And then he said: "this is what we'd call an excellent outcome for this surgery." Meaning that everything looks wonderful and his heart is working just wonderfully. There are still some things they are watching (like the left ventricle and some leaky valves), but nothing they are too concerned about overall. The doctor concluded by saying that Caden's surgery was miraculous, and that we should give Dr. Kanter a kiss on the forehead.
Now don't put it past me to give him that kiss on the forehead. I'm just not sure how Dr. Kanter would respond. And besides, I'm much more inclined to raise my hands in worship and thank the Great Physician, who we are convinced guided his hands and performed a miracle on sweet Caden's heart. We are praying that God gets ALL the glory for the way He healed Caden. And even though he will still need surgery in the future to replace his valve, we are hoping that won't have to be for another few years.
We are humbled to realize that God chose to heal Caden to bring Himself glory, and we are honored to be a part of that. At the same time we recognize that there might still be 'speed bumps' (I prefer that term to "land mines") along the way, and that he still has some more obstacles to overcome. But we are convinced that the Lord has big plans for Caden, and we are praying that his special little heart will draw hearts to Jesus all the days of his life.
"I am the LORD, who heals you" - Exodus 15:26