12/15 4:10 pm

Ethan was packaged up and sent to the cath lab. He heard us talking ahead of time and wanted to know what was going on. Wow! That is not a delirium question. The med switch might have really helped.

He was questioning where he was going and why. He was nervous something was wrong. We all assured him he was doing great and this was just routine.

They asked me if I wanted to walk down to the cath lab with him. My answer “Hell yeah!”. I got to walk down with him and see the cath lab and watch them switch Ethan from his hospital bed to the cath table. The cath table had this inflatable cozy looking, marshmallow bed that looked fabulous. What a process of getting him there. Even with half the machines as before. There were 6 of us and I was out to work by pushing the “cart” which had his extra medications and emergency drugs, emergency endotracheal tube kit.

The doctor doing the procedure came out and introduced herself and chatted about Ethan for a moment. Then they closed the big blue doors with the “Caution Radiation” sign on the door.

I checked a few things off my list of tasks to accomplish today while I waited for Ethan to return.Then poof, he was back speedy fast, less than 2 hours.

I got the brief results of his heart cath and lung pressure readings.  They have noticed increased pressures in the left side of the heart that weren’t there before. Are you kidding me? His lung pressures have remained the same even with the extra support they have been receiving. This could be ok though because the pressures from the elevated pressures on the left side.

We went through the list of things that could cause this. A lot of it pointed to the rejection process.  We have to wait a few days to find out the results. Rejection sounds really scary. In reality, this is a fascinating advancement in our medical abilities. They can discover rejection on a cellular level and change doses or possibly medications to avoid the body attacking the organ further. If they weren’t doing these tests on a routine basis then rejection could be devastating.

These are preliminary results and still need to be interpreted.  I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was a little disappointed. Maybe not even disappointed. Maybe frustration. I am frustrated that he is driving down an Upstate New York road full of potholes that slow him down every step of the way. Why not a Florida highway, nice and smooth? 

I am feeling bummed. More because we also found out today that our littlest cute friend, Theo, likely has cancer. It is hard to be away and not be able to help him. I love this little bunny. He has such a huge personality and large part of our family. Avery has him trained enough to take out in the yard without a leash. He just happily hops around (supervised of course) with his dog friends close by. He does like chomping on my flowers. Obviously we are going to support little Theo the best way possible and he has a super awesome veterinary team at Hilton Vet Hospital looking out for his best interests. Look at Theo and Phineas the Super Dog snuggling. ❤️ This little dude is Avery’s baby.

I am waiting to hear what the plan is about Ethan and how to optimize him to get off this breathing tube. It likely won’t be this week. But I would rather set him up for success and be patient than rush things along and suffer with set backs. I would prefer he traveled around the pot holes.