Landen has his dates!

I want to thank you all for your patience while we just enjoyed the summer.  Many of you have reached out to see how Landen is doing and I can tell an update is well overdue.  Up to this point Landen has been doing so well! He has been growing and all of his "stats" have been running where we want them (with the exception of a couple minor dips in his O2 saturation).  We have been enjoying the summer with pool time with friends, fun at home and even a couple weekends of camping.  YES, we went camping with a 4 month old, in a tent, in the woods, without bathrooms and running water....and we all loved it.  However, our friends Braydon and Jess came one of those weekends with a two week old just to make sure we didn't have full bragging rights ;)

I have said before that "no news is good news" when it comes to Landen updates.  Even though this is an update, it doesn't mean we have bad news.  Several weeks ago the team at Childrens determined that he is ready for his next surgery a bit earlier than they were originally thinking.  This isn't a bad thing at all.  In fact, the reason they were feeling they wanted to move his surgery ahead of schedule was due to his fantastic health and "chunky" cheeks :)  We were told that the plan was to have it scheduled for the end of October.  They felt he was healthy enough to endure the next procedure and waiting to long gives the PA band they placed on his pulmonary artery time to potentially fail due to his fantastic growth (which has also slowed down considerably over the last couple weeks).  Bottom line is that all signs point to a surgery sooner rather than later.

Last night while I was away on business I received several text messages from Ashley who was concerned with his O2 sat's and we agreed to contact Sarah (our cardiologist fellow under Dr. Tworetzky).  She asked that Ashley bring him up to Childrens immediately for some testing....so off she went after my Mom came to the house to watch the girls for the night (thanks Mom!).  After a night of testing, Ashley was on her way home at 5am with the knowledge that he was stable, and good for now.  She also was told to keep an eye (like we were not already) on his saturation's and to call if they got into the 60's again (for those freeking out about sats that could be in the 60's keep in mind that his normal is 73).  Later this morning Sarah discussed with Ashley that based on these changes, she and the team felt it necessary to move his surgery yet again and we are now lined up for surgery the week of the 19th.  The process will start with a Pre-Cath work-up on October 16, followed by the cardiac catheterization October 19.  The cath procedure will be an overnight stay with his expected return home on the 20th.  He will return to Childrens on the 21st for his open heart surgery with Dr. Kaza (the same surgeon that did his band procedure and ASD).  He is expected to be in the hospital for a week or two after that for recovery.

Neither Ashley or I are nervous about this next step (for now at least).  We know that we are in very capable hands with the talented staff at Childrens, and more importantly our son sits in the capable hands of his Creator :).  My team at Autodesk is ready to fill in the gaps while I am gone and Ashley's parents are planning on coming up to live here while we handle Landen.  We are well taken care of here in life, and we couldn't imagine doing all of this without the support of loved ones and the faith we have!

So for now, keep Landen and the team at Childrens in your prayers.  Please pray for clear preparation for the team up there, patience and peace for Ashely and I, and understanding for Lyla and Maddie as they have already been such an amazing support on there own! 

You can be sure that we will now keep you up to date with any changes, and the status of each of those dates as we get closer.  Thank you all again for your prayers and support.  We know that they are part of the reason that Landen has had the success that he has so far!

Enjoying the journey in these next steps,

George, Ashley, Maddie, Lyla and Landen!