Fun Stuff?!?

George went in for his CT on Tuesday and we now have the results. Drum Roll please... he is going to have a thoracotomy. Which is where they go in the side and spread his ribs, very painful, he has had 2 already. They will go in and tack his aorta to his sternum they call it an aortopexy. They told us that this will not totally fix the problem and that he will have to have this done again, FUN!!!!! So we are looking around for a second opinion, if anyone has any tips please let us know. Oh and by the way he has pneumonia again!?! You better believe that this is big P number 6!

Time Traveler's Wife

So Spencer and I were out with our friends Friday night and we saw the best look alike. Well he looked a lot more like him from the side. So Lindsay and I decided to go talk to him and get a picture. We really thought it was him, I think it is a pretty good look alike to Eric Bana!?! He said he gets it all the time.

"The pipe, it's pinched shut!"

All of you who have seen the Sandlot know what my title means. Well it has come to mean something else to us here.

George went in for his annual heart biopsy yesterday and they did a bronchoscopy too. We talked to the doctor after the procedure and it seems that the right side looks great, and that is the side you would see the effects of the aspiration. The left lung however is a different story. The left side in anyone is typically smaller but George's is "Pinched Shut" as Squints Palladorous would say. So this is the main cause of his pneumonia's and if it does not get fixed he could loose his lung. But to fix it may be tricky, it is pinched by his main arteries his pulmonary and his aorta, the doctor could see it pulsating from the pressure, crazy.

Top row right to left: Trachea the left side looks smaller, bronchial tube on the right side that looks good, Second row left to right: Right side, right side, beginning of the left already narrow.

These 3 are all the left side the first and last are the part that are pinched by the arteries and the middle on is further down and it looks good so it is just the pinched that is the problem. But as you can see it is really pinched shut!!!

They can fix this by stitching the aorta to the sternum but there are 2 ways to do that. One they can do it with scopes, we would prefer that. The other way is full surgery, big bummer!! But we will not know until he gets his CT that will be in a few weeks, they will be able to see his full anatomy and know which way they need to do this procedure. So I will keep you all updated if you want to know or not.

His heart cath went well all of his pressures looked good and his coronaries looked good too. He has a stint in his SVC that still looks good which is all news we like to hear. Although we got the results to his heart biopsy and not as good of news. He has mild rejection, which we can hopefully switch up his meds and he will be OK. But that is the latest and greatest on our Georgie Bean. More to come I am sure.

Yogurt Consistancy

So we have been in to see a pulmanologist(SP) to see why George has been getting pneumonia so much lately. He came up with a few ideas; first is aspiration, the second is his heart is pressing on his left bronchial tube and making it hard for him to cough out junk. So we just went in and had a swallow study, they make him eat barium in various consistency's. He did fine with the pudding and apple sauce. When we got to the nectar and the fruit punch he was aspirating into his lungs. Not bad from what they are saying but a teeny amount will get into his airway. So now he can only eat things that are a yogurt consistency or thicker. You may ask yourself what about drinks. Well I had to buy a jumbo box of thickener to thicken drinks. It sicked me out to think of thickening water or milk so we went and got a ton of Gatorade. We tell him it is his Batman Juice, he seems to buy it. As for long term we will have to wait and see.
They are going to do a broncoscapy(SP) on Tuesday when they do his heart biopsy. I will be interested to see what they find. I personally think that the small bronchial cord is 80% of the problem and the aspiration is 20%. There has only been one time that he got pneumonia without even having a cough. But we may be referred to an ENT to see if he has paralyzed vocal cords too.
White I was waiting at the pharmacy for prescriptions, the pharmacist and I came to the conclusion that George does not have an Arby's symbol above his head we think he has a question mark. He keeps us on our toes. If anyone feels like they would enjoy some thickened Gatorade come on over you know where to get it!!

Georgeie Porgie

George turned 5 on Monday and we had so much fun. We went swimming with the cousins at the Rec Center and had Dinosaur cake and Ice cream after!! He had so much fun and we are going to have to go swimming there again!!

Sam and George going down the slide.

Ruth and Scarloo

Nana and the wee ones, Ruby and Grant, they both loved the water!

Hank and George

Alex

Jack-o

My big 5 year old!

George and Scarlet going down the slide.

He seemed to think that a cannon ball was just dunking your head in the water. He has seen the Sandlot so I know he knows what it is, I think head in the water is just his version!?!

Georges Red Dinosaur Cake he requested, I think I out did myself.

Jack-o and George

My dad can not make it through an event without putting Scarlet up to something!

George's new football jersey.

Hank, George, Sam and Scarloo

Madd Skills!!!

Here is spencer showing off his madd dancing skills with Ruth and her friend Ellie. Too funny, I keep watching it.

Latest Happenings

So I need to do a little catch up, my parents are taking on a large task and we scheduled a Super Saturday to work on their kitchen. They ended up taking out all day and not doing electrical and plumbing, there was a lot more damage to the floor than they thought so they are basically starting from dirt!! You can see all the dust in the air when I was taking the pictures.

This is the doorway to their larder(pantry). They striped all the plaster off the brick wall to have it exposed.

This is the doorway to the future laundry, and my dad and Spencer.

This is Zach picking up all the old building materials they just built over when building the house!?!

We blessed Grant on Sunday so it is official, Spencer LeGrand Little!! We did it at home with just our family's it was so nice and relaxing I think that is the way to do it!!

Scarlet found a new chair!!

This was as good as we could do for a family picture, Scarlet was not having it.

Spencer and Grant, Grant is wearing my dads shoes that he was blessed in, a great tradition.

My dad and Grant how cute!

So this was the night before while I was preparing for Sunday, I made all sorts of treats. This is Scarlet with the Licorice Carmel's.

This is Scarlets face and hand print in the Carmel's, I guess she thought she would just go for it!! Don't worry all those who attended, I did not use these!!

And yes this little bug is smiling now, I love it!!