Happy New Year everyone! Henry has reluctantly moved on from the holidays, though we still get occasional "Merry Christmas Momma" statement when he's feeling really lovey... very sweet. Christmas was even more amazing than we'd hoped for. Henry got wonderful time with family and friends and was able to soak everyone in one by one. We traveled over the river and through the woods to St. Louis to celebrate with the Simpsons (see Henry "the chef" decorating cookies below!), then back to Kansas City to celebrate with the Bridges (see Henry practicing making it snow with GoGo below!). And the best presents of all... sore bellies from all the laughter and warm cheeks from all the smiles. There may have been an additional rocketship or two, many good meals and awesome Christmas cookies as well in the mix. It was wonderful, and we're grateful for every second with the amazing family members we're surrounded by.
We had a nice "ending" celebration with our First Steps family of providers. We had an evening's worth of time to thank each of them for all of the love and support they've provided us over the last three years, and I didn't cry once! The party was not enough of an offering compared to the amazing work they provided Henry and support they provided his Mommas, but it was a fun time. We will forever be grateful for the gift of this program for Henry and our family and the friendships that came when we were not expecting it:)
We had an appointment this week with Dr. Raghuveer in the Cardiology Clinic after our six months break! After the usual echo and EKG, Dr. Raghuveer recommended Henry have another cardiac cath procedure to look more closely at Henry's pulmonary arteries. She explained to us that the right side of Henry's heart is a little more enlarged than last visit and from what the echo was able to visualize, she suspects this is a result of Henry's heart working too hard due to issues with his pulmonary arteries. Pulmonary arteries connect his heart to his lungs and this is the anatomy that we were told he wasn't born with when he was three days old. Later detected, his pulmonary arteries have always been smaller in size- though growing- since Henry's first surgery at six months. Dr. Raghuveer feels that scheduling both a cardiac cath with intervention (all during cath) including possibly a ballooning or stenting in areas where the arteries "have issues" (kinking, narrowing, pinching) could help reduce pressure on the right side of Henry's heart and keep it from continuing to grow in size. Dr. Raghuveer reassured us that these methods to assist the pulmonary arteries are routinely performed and that this was a good next step for him. The increased right side and small pulmonary arteries were not new to us, though we are a little nervous about the procedure after Henry's difficult surgery a year ago. She was very positive, as always, and also commented on how active he was during our appointment (during which he was climbing, jumping and playing with our phones) and how great he looked. Henry is scheduled for the cath procedure March 15th, so please keep him in your prayers/thoughts as we prepare him for these next steps.
As if that's not exciting enough, we're looking forward to an exciting 2012 as we will welcome a new family member! Julie is pregnant with our second child and due in a little over a month, and we could not be more excited. We know Henry will be an awesome big brother, but know this will be a big adjustment for him. We both feel fortunate for the siblings in our life and know the love of family will bring them close. So please keep us in your thoughts/prayers for that exciting time as well and stay tuned for pictures! As always thanks for checking in with our guy!
Much love,
Julie, Kate and Henry
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