June 26, 2012 - Doing fantastic! 3 weeks post Fontan

Life is good.  We have successfully made it through #3 surgery and he is doing great.  We have the meds down, he is managing with his new low fat foods,  and the only thing I feel we have to work on is just letting him heal (his chest incision looks good, his chest tube sites (4) are still scabbing up).  He  still is having some troubles sleeping not sure if it's nightmares or what, hoping to work through this as time goes on.  We are in the process of getting paperwork started for an INR finger-stick to measure coumidin levels instead of regular blood draws to make this weekly process easier.  His last INR (coumidin) level was were it needed to be so they will have us now hold off until our next appointment back in Milwaukee in July.  What have I noticed since surgery - his appetite has increased.  Caden wakes up asking for hot dogs and mustard, or chicken nuggets (his soy ones) hours after a big meal…..and insists on bedtime snacks which seem to be more like meals.  He never did any of this before surgery and although I'm not sure why that is….perhaps the increased oxygen levels help with appetite? Who knows...  I'm also noticing he is starting to talk more in sentences and putting more words together.  I'm sure this has happened gradually but it sure seems like in the last couple of weeks his vocab, sentences, and phrases have increased dramatically.  No matter what the case, we are celebrating  that God is Good, prayer works, and that each day is a gift.

Love,
Melissa

                                   
 Taken 6/26/12 Just hanging out together Griffin (~18 mo) and Caden (3yr)….best buddies.