Jack had a cardiology appointment today. It was business as usual.. check in at 8:30 and getting weighed and measured. Everything was going smooth.. until it was time for "the stickers". He usually tolerates his EKG pretty well but he was not having it today. He didn't want the stickers put on and he REALLY didn't want them taken off-- they were super sticky! A millions stickers and a few tears later we were done and back in the waiting room.
We finally get called back for the echo and as we were walking to the room I hear Jack's little voice squeak out, "Can we go home now?" They are never easy but today was probably his toughest to date. He just melted to a puddle, thrashed around and begged to be done. He didn't want kitty videos, Sia, Bruno mars or the quiet song.. nothing seemed to soothe him.
After a long, tough morning and seeing his lowests o2 sats I've seen in a while, I braced myself for our chat with the cardiologist. Dr. Tworetzky walked in and was his calm, cool self. He checked in with us and asked if there were any concerns or changes. He listened to jacks heart and quizzed him on the animal on his tshirt. He jumped right in and talked about scheduling Jack's Fontan procedure. Here's the best part-- we get to decide if we want to schedule it for November/December or wait until the spring to avoid the winter weather. For half of my pregnancy and for Jack's entire life, I feel like we have constantly been told what we had to do and when we had to do it. And now we have the power to choose.. it sounds small because really it's just about scheduling, but it feels big to me. There's power in the ability to choose.
The Fontan is done around age 3 and Jack's 3rd birthday is January 21st. If I could, I would have it done tomorrow-- I want it done and over with so we can move forward to a new normal without this giant THING hanging over us. Jeremy wants to wait. So we have a lot of talking to do.. but I have to say it feels pretty amazing to be able to talk about this.
