Luke's adventure to LaLa Land

9/17/10

Who else is glad it's Friday??? Mark has been on call this week, meaning he has to stop by the hospital a few times a day to check on newborns in addition to working at the clinic, take phone calls all night long, and I get stuck with taking Madelyn to school in the morning. I'm still not over my cold and am freaking exhausted. Anyway...

Luke was born with a heart murmur. He had an echocardiogram when he was three days old that showed he had three small holes in his heart. They told us he'd need to have a follow up echo when he was one, but that he'd have to be sedated for it. We wanted to squeeze it in before he turned one (because he's getting kicked off Medicaid at the end of the month) but it took three weeks to get scheduled because the doctor's orders were faxed to the wrong hospital. Oh, the joys!

So they finally called me on Tuesday to say that I needed to come in on Thursday (yesterday). We had to be at the St. George hospital at 8:15 am (it's a 50 mile drive) and Luke had to be fasting for six hours previous to the procedure. He woke up at 6:00 am but I couldn't nurse him back to sleep like I normally do. By the time he was finally done at 11:30 am, he hadn't had anything to eat or drink for 13 hours (except for the piece of chalk I found him munching on in the play room while we were waiting...). Poor kid! Here he is enjoying a popsicle after the procedure:

Hahahahahaha...still a little loopy

The sedatives they used didn't put him totally under--they just needed him to lie still for 45 minutes or so. (A little longer than the 5 seconds he usually holds still for.) The tech said, "It's like the lights are on but no one's home." Luke was still trying to talk and move during the echo. He didn't like being drugged. But most importantly--his results came back clean! The holes have closed up on his own and his heart is healthy and normal.

Phew. Now I'm back to work--we're celebrating Luke's birthday tomorrow (a week early) and I have a lot to do! Can't believe that year went by so fast!

P.S. After cleaning and searching everywhere for Madelyn's glasses, it occurred to me that she went to the neighbor's to play right after school. I asked if she took them off while she was there. "Oh, yeah. I left them on Katie's bed." Kids!!!!!!!! Then the screw fell out and the lens fell out of them the next day, which was a whole other deal. This has been an awesome week.