Newest Nick News

We heard back from Dr. Cowley yesterday. It's still nothing definitive. The cardiologists and surgeons are not opposed, per say, to doing another operation, but Dr. Cowley and the surgeon Dr. Hawkins, want to be doubly sure that that is their best option before going ahead with it. Dr. Cowley is going to fed-ex us a holter monitor (a 24 hour EKG) and have us send it right back for them to read and see how bad the arrhythmia's are right now and we'll continue on from there. It sounds like they will try as many alternate possibilities (such as different drugs) before going back into surgery IF possible, but they WILL go back in if it looks like nothing else will work. We're just going to take this slow because we're not SURE that an operation will actually HELP the arrhythmia issues.
So... we're still kind of waiting for further direction, but at least we know that if we end up doing another surgery, we wont have to go to the Mayo Clinic in MN. That actually relieves me a little. I mean, we know the doctors and surgeons here. We are familiar with the hospital (inside out), and we have family and friends much closer than in MN. So, even though the news isn't really conclusive as to what we will do, at least we know we can stay close.

Dr. Cowley Called

So...
Dr. Cowley called yesterday and said that he had heard back from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. His colleague and the surgeon there have looked at Nick's information and images and things and that they think a repeat surgery would be worth doing. They still would not try to remove the entire tumor (because they can't due to it's location) but, they would try to resect it some more.
Dr. Cowley said that he will discuss the situation again with the entire team of cardiologists and the cardio-thoracic surgeons this coming Wednesday and also present the 2nd opinion shared by the Mayo clinic, and then he'll call us back. He said that if we choose to do another surgery and for some reason the surgeon at PCMC does not want to do it or feels like he would not be able to be helpful through surgery, that we will have the option of going to the Mayo clinic to have the surgery done.
It's scary to me. Heart surgery is very serious. We've made it through one open heart surgery and then the cath and the implant of the ICD, and countless other smaller things, but the thought of doing another surgery just makes me all knotted up. It's so hard to see your child after OHS. You do what you have to - especially if you think it may help your child or even save their life, but to have to see a little one with the machines and drainage tubes and stitches and blood and IV's and so on, and NOT be able to hold them or do anything to help is ... indescribable. Not to mention all of the risks that are involved.
On the other hand, if the doctors and surgeons think that this could help him, then I suppose we'll have a lot to consider and pray about.





Here is a photo of our FAVORITE cardiologist and Nick about 1 year ago. Any prayers offered up for this wonderful man that he might be inspired and have the knowledge to do what is in Nick's best interest are GREATLY appreciated! :) Thanks everyone. We love you.

Just a few more pics.

The Shire's


The shadow of the carriage ride...


Josh and Me with 2 tired kids. :)

The wedding gig this last weekend...

Josh performed for a wedding for a friend of his this last weekend-- it was a lot of fun. They have this really nice big red barn so they used it to their advantage and had a Barn Dance. The kids had a blast. They also have Shire horses (they look like Clydesdale's), so there were carriage rides too! Here are just a few pics of the night.


My Cowboys


Balancing act


Fixing the belt


Josh


The Band

Toothless!

Paul had such a big day today! In order to make room for those permanent teeth trying to come in, we had to have the dentist pull out 4 (that's right, count them FOUR) of Pauls bottom teeth! Paul did AWESOME!!! He was as brave as could be, walked right on back to the chair and told me I could stay in the waiting room. The dentist told me that Paul was happy and pleasant and talked the whole time. (He loves going to the dentist... His dentist is super nice and has the same name as him so he thinks that rocks.) Anyway, he went through it with flying colors. The only problem we've had is the numbing stuff~ his bottom lip is all floppy and he bit it once. Here are some "Before" and "After" pictures.




As you can see, he already has one permanent tooth coming in. And the ones they pulled were LONG! 2 of them measured at about 3/4 of an inch!

It's funny. He was a little worried (after having it all done) that someone would think he looked ugly. I told him it looks awesome with all those teeth gone, and he kind of rolled his eyes and was like, "No mom, not the teeth! What if they think my LIP is ugly?" (Because it was all numb. DUH, mom) LOL. Funny kid.