Cardiology from the University Hospital called and told me what the plan is for Joel. His surgery date is March 11th. That's a Wednesday. No matter, he'll be in before that.
We're to take him off of the Coumadin (the blood thinner that keeps clots from forming around his artificial heart valve) starting March 4th. We are to take his INR (monitor his blood) daily and call to let them know what it is each time. UPDATE 2-11: We are to take him to the lab for his blood monitoring starting the 4th, but do not have to take him off of the Coumadin. They will stop giving him Coumadin on the 7th when he is admitted to the hospital.
If he drops below a certain number -- I won't try to explain it all-- at any rate if he drops quickly we are to bring him to the University Hospital and admit him. They will be expecting him. He will then be put on the IV blood thinner and kept on it until his surgery. They expect him to be there at least 5 days before the surgery.
After the surgery, he will be kept on the IV thinner and they will add the Coumadin when it is safe and then remove the IV thinner... keeping him in the hospital until he is back up to a safe level on the Coumadin and having been cleared by the ENT as well.
I will have to leave his hospital room to obtain my meals. They do not do parent trays. Bummer, because it's not safe to leave him alone and he always tries to unhook himself and follow me if I leave the room. I will have to call the nurse's station to have someone come in to stay with Joel each time I need to go eat. I can bring the food back to the room to eat it, or I can bring a small cooler with food in it. Only one parent overnight in the room of course. We may be sharing the room with another patient.
I asked if my infant could stay with me, she said "No. At least I don't think they will allow that, but I will ask again." This is partly because of the other patient in the room. Admittedly, Lucy does rattle; it could be from reflux/swallowing issues...(we're working on that, too). UPDATE 2-11: I CAN bring Lucy with me! She will be with me at all times; I will bring her stroller and infant car seat.
Now I've just heard from Otolaryngology, we are to "admit Joel to pediatric cardiology on Saturday March 7th". I told her what cardiology had just said and she said "okay". I asked her where do we take him, to peds cardiology or do we admit him to the hospital and where? We need to know that before we stop the Coumadin and she said she'll talk to the doctor again and let us know by next week where we should take him at that point.
At any rate, we now know that we're to admit him to the hospital no later than March 7th.
That allows us to schedule a few things in the meantime. Maybe we'll go see the "big movies" tonight. They're showing Madagascar 2 for free to the school children tonight, that would be a thrill for the boys to see that AND some of the kids that they know from school there. Hmm... how about it Papa? Meet us at our fancy older theater at 6?
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