Tired Little Tiger

It's been a long day for all three of us, but we are home again and Levi is doing great! A huge thanks to everyone who prayed for us and thought about us today. We truly felt the effects of prayer today, as well as in the events leading up to today.

We started out at shortly after 7 AM today in the outpatient center of the DeVos Children's Hospital and Levi got changed into his little hospital gown (covered with "tired little tigers"). After getting his vitals checked, we were taken to the Meijer Heart Center for his procedure. Just before 8:30 AM, we met the anesthesiologist and he took us to the cath lab where Levi would have the procedure. We were able to stay with Levi while he was being sedated (which took no more than a minute using a "gas mask" of sorts) and then Levi's cardiologist met us to go over the procedure one last time. It was a good thing that it had been explained to us before, because I don't think either Matt or I could hear him through our tears. We just had to trust that we weren't just giving Levi over to the doctor, we were giving him over to God.

Then we waited... After 1-1/2 hours we got our first update that things were going well and that they had the catheter in, had taken their first pictures and measurements, and that they were getting ready to insert the plug. Then another hour or so later, the nurse came out to tell us that they were done. After that we met with the cardiologist who explained what he did and assured us that everything went great, that the PDA was able to be fixed with this procedure and that Levi did great during the procedure. He even mentioned that now that his PDA is fixed, Levi might act a bit differently - he might have MORE energy (I wonder if that is really possible, but we'll have to wait and see)!

Finally, we got to see Levi again in the anesthesia recovery area. After about 45 minutes there (and a bit too many liquids for Levi, resulting in a mess all over him and me!), we were brought up to a room in the outpatient center where we started the day. We spent the afternoon there and Levi went from groggy to napping to sitting up and playing with toys from the playroom. His recovery has been amazing! Around 5:30 PM the nurse removed the bandages from Levi's groin and he was able to get down and walk around in the playroom. We were discharged shortly after 6 PM and we were back home by about 6:30 PM. Levi had a burst of energy right when we got home - he wanted to play with the special Pooh Bear balloon that was waiting at home from Grandma! By 7 PM though, he was sucking on his fingers, rubbing his eyes and ready for bed - he fell asleep right away and hasn't moved much since.

According to the cardiologist, Levi doesn't have any real restrictions and can resume normal activities tomorrow - but we have a low-key day planned just in case. We're just so thankful that today is done and that we can start to put the issue of Levi's PDA behind us!

Here are some pictures from our day...