Tuesday, February 9

Between here and Facebook, i realize there might be a touch of redundancy in our status of recent events, but i don't think it will do any harm...

Today is Tuesday and last night, Ron, the boys, Shirley and Ron's sister Ellie (our grateful taxi driver!) returned to Corning. Ron and I decided to leave me with the van for various obvious reasons as well as the optimism that i will return home with Henry soon! We decided to get back into the routine of things at home. I am on maternity leave, so it made sense for me to stay here and visit with Henry as much as possible, get some much needed rest, as well as meeting with doctors as that arises.

I met with Dr. Ravishankar, Henry's cardiologist this morning and she just updated me on Henry's status. The pulminary artery to his lungs is naturally narrowing with his growth, which is a GOOD thing, which means that the blood and fluid flow to his lungs is limited, which is what we want given the nature of his heart defect. If that narrowing does not continue or seems to NOT be constricting at a rate the doctors want to see, the open-chest band surgery will be necessary, which is a procedure done to keep Henry's heart at a comfortable place until The Big Surgery which is planned for a few months (?) from now. Dr. R would like to monitor Henry thru the week with occasional further echocardiograms and chest xrays.

I really like her. She has a direct nature of talking to me with a friendly tone. Good eye contact. I think i might impress her with my understanding and the questions i ask. She always smiles and pats me on the arm. Its amazing how little subtle nuances like this make a WORLD of difference in a situation such as Henry's.

So that is that. Sorry no new pics. I do have FUN pics on the camera that i will upload soon. Pics of the RMH and the kids running amok. OH YEAH - - also - - a local news station doing a segment called FYI Philly came to take video of the RMH and I believe Sam is a HIGHLIGHT of the footage. The videographer and newcast lady were getting a total kick out of him. The airdate is this coming weekend, Saturday at 7pm (again Sunday, i think, at 11:30pm) and with any luck will have a link to the footage. My crazy kid!

Til next time....