Surgery Scheduled

Just thought I would let you all know that George's surgery is scheduled for April 21. So we have a while but it will be here before we know it!!

Get Involved!

There is a lot of debate about the Health Care Reform and issues with representatives pursuing their own agenda rather than their community's. I urge you all to get informed and know where you stand on the debate and go to your Caucus Meeting Tuesday March 23rd at 7 PM. I am guilty of sitting by and letting those we have elected make the decisions for me. I have decided to become informed and try to make a difference. I urge you all to do the same!!

Our Little Artist

Scarlet was diligently working on her coloring the other day, I gave her a stack of paper she could color on. When the day was over I went to see how much she used and what she did on all the paper. She only used one and this is what she did. She used up ever inch of this paper, not what I was expecting. I think it is the cutest drawing I have ever seen!

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!!