Joel's pre-T&A Cardiology visit

Here is what we learned today:

When they schedule the surgery we will be asked to stop giving Joel his Coumadin four days before. As soon as his INR levels drop below a certain point (which usually happens very quickly for him) we are to bring him to the hospital there where they will give him Heparin (another, shorter-term blood thinner) through an IV until just before he has the T & A surgery. Afterwards, he will be put back on Coumadin as soon as it is safe and can go home when the levels are good. Best case scenario: one week in the hospital.

This is really good news for us because we were so worried about Joel being completely off blood thinners like we thought the doctor was suggesting. He hasn't been off of Coumadin for more than one day since his heart valve placement four years ago. At the same time there are still worries about any kind of drugs or changes in drugs, especially in light of recent problems in that industry. If he weren't having troubles because of his enlarged tonsils and adenoids we wouldn't be considering this at all.

We hope to send Joel back to school in the morning... this is a tough decision every day during the winter. He's still very congested and doesn't seem to be getting well (i.e. tonsils needing to come out?). I asked if we should send him to school or keep him home and the doctor said "he's a bit wheezy today..." but she went on to say, "let him have as normal a daily life as possible in the meantime" and "the other kids are going back and forth to school anyway". Sometimes I wish God would check in with a daily email to let me know what to do about these things; Mike and I are only human parents. All we can do is pray and try our best.

We are waiting for the cardiologists in the hospital there and those who are familiar with him in the hospital here to confer over what his EKG and echocardiogram said today and if all is well Joel's ENT there will schedule the surgery and let us know. There may be a couple of tries before it actually happens, but we'll see.