Memorial Day Weekend and Katherine's Kindergarten Graduation

 

We had a great holiday weekend. Much needed time off and fun in the sun after having Colin's heart cath a week before. We got to spend great quality time with friends and family, go fishing, swim in the pool, and even indulge in some adult beverages and SNO-CONES! 

Friday night we had friends over, the kids played all night while the adults got to visit. The family moved on Sunday to Fort Worth area, so it was one last hu-rah before they moved away. We got to have so much fun, we didn't realize it was 1am before long. The girls fell asleep in our bed watching a movie, but not the boys. Colin and his friend were still running around at 1:00am. Boys will be boys.

Saturday we went to a family bbq out in the country. We all love going out to their property. It has a nice size pond to fish and swim in (we didn't let the kids swim since Colin's restrictions had not been lifted from the heart cath). But they loved riding the tractor and the golf cart around the property. Colin caught NINE fish, he was having a blast. Katherine's favorite part was driving the golf cart and making sno-cones. She liked it so much, the next day we went and bought the kids their own sno-cone maker!

Sunday we had a nice quite day around the house. My parents took the kids to the movies while Matt and I ran some errands. Monday we had a BBQ with my family and went swimming. Most importantly Matt and Katherine got up early in the morning and put out our American Flags and Matt taught Katherine the true meaning on Memorial Day. The kids loved going to the pool and swimming.

Katherine's Kindergarten Graduation
Katherine graduated Kindergarten yesterday, can't believe she is going to be a first grader, where has the time gone? I am so proud of her. She had a great first year of "real school". She is reading so well and is doing well in math. It is amazing watching her grow the past year. She is so smart, inquisitive, creative, and loves school. They had a great ceremony with each kid walking across the stage and then they sang all the parents a song they worked hard. Afterwards we went to her classroom and took pictures and then I took Katherine out just the two of us for a special treat, her favorite.. soft pretzels and slushies :)
We had such a great time in Kindergarten with her class projects and learning on how read and count to 100, can't wait to see what first grade brings us!

Heart Cath Findings

Thank you all so much for praying for Colin, this means so much to me that Colin has a large group of people who love and care for him so much! Proud to say that we are home after Colin's heart cath. We got to the hospital at 6:45am and was released at 7:30pm last night.. what a LONG day!

After checking in, many doctors came to look at Colin. He was so good for each of them and after each one, he would gather up his toys and say "We go home now, I done?" Poor sweet child had no idea what we were really there for. At 8:30am, we gave Colin some sleepy medicine to relax him, boy it did the trick, he was very very relaxed. I have to admit I cried seeing him that way, I don't know why, but it just breaks my heart to see him so drugged up. Then came time for the doctors to take him back. more kisses, hugs, and tears.

Waiting for the doctors to come see us, in a good mood so far

After the sleepy medicine took effect. 

They took him back a little after 9am and he was done with the cath at 12:30pm.  A lot of that time is getting him under, getting the IV and lines in. We got to see him in recovery at 1:30pm. The requirement to go home was to eat and keep it down. He drank 6 boxes of apple juice and had some pizza and chicken strips, kept it down, so we were on our way out!

They put a cath in his groin and in his neck so they could get good views from all angles of his heart.

SO THE BIG NEWS- WHAT THE CATH WAS ALL ABOUT
 - Colin is a candidate for the Fontan surgery (GREAT NEWS.. this was my biggest fear is that he would not qualify for the last surgery)
- The heart cath doctor felt that Colin could wait 6 months to a year for the fontan and will make that recommendation to the team. Our cardiologist thought it would be about 2 months from now. But the cath doctor thinks Colin's heart looks so good that he could wait to get a little bigger.
- It will be up to his surgical team to decide on when the next surgery will be, we should hear a timeline in the next few weeks.
 - Colin's oxygen saturation's were really good, high 80's.
- All measurements and pressure of his heart looked good.
- They did not have to balloon his pulmonary artery like they thought they would have to , the blood flow looked fine enough.
- They had to coil one collateral vessel. This means Colin's body formed a collateral vessel to help with his poor blood flow, but it was competing with his other ones where they want the blood to flow, so they coiled it (put a metal block so the blood will not flow through it). It is very common with children with heart defects, so this was not a surprised that he needed one coiled.

SO THE NEXT STEP.... we wait to hear from surgical scheduling on when the Fontan will be. Looks like 2 months to a year is the possibility now depending on what the team thinks after the results from the cath.

Reading a book with daddy in recovery

Eating ice cream for breakfast the next morning

Heart Cath Monday, Proper sendoff party, & Mother's Day

First and foremost, Colin's heart cath is scheduled for this Monday May 21st at 8:30am at Texas Children's hospital. Please pray all goes well and the heart cath results show that he is a candidate for the 3rd surgery and they find no other problems (besides only having half a heart :)

I will post updates the blog & Facebook once we have them. The procedure should take 3-5 hours, then 6 hours in recovery. We might get to go home or we might have to stay the night. I am already a nervous wreck. Plus all four of us just got over the stomach flu. I called the hospital to make sure Colin was still fine to go on with the procedure since he had it last week. They said it was still good to go since he is done with being sick. I pray over the weekend, we can all stay well. Needless to say, this will be a low key weekend. 

Last weekend we had so much fun, that it will be fine to take it easy this weekend. Saturday night we had a going away party for our friends who are moving to DFW area. They are going to be missed greatly.. we promise to come visit!! Katherine has been so upset that they are leaving, so we had to give them a proper sendoff. The kids loved playing in the backyard. It was a great evening with friends.

 It's all fun and games until kids attack!!! And yes that's Colin in the spiderman mask beating up everyone.

 Sunday was Mother's day.  I woke up to beautiful flowers and cards. Katherine made a whole bunch of stuff from school. One thing was a book about her & me. It was very cute and creative. Like drawing our favorite food (she put both of ours as macaroni), our favorite colors, and what she likes to do best with her mommy, which is going to the zoo. The only sad thing was that she listed my age as 48.. OUCH!!! Guess she can't be perfect!

I got to pick what I wanted to do for the day, so of course I picked going to the beach. It was a beautiful day, the water is still a little too cold to get into, but I love just hanging out on the sand and playing. The kids did get in up to the knees. Me.. no thanks, I like it when it is warmer water!

On the way home, we got ice cream. Katherine ate her whole cone, Colin on the other hand was so tired, he kept falling asleep WHILE eating it. It was so funny I had to video it. He finally dosed off completely and Matt and I finished the ice cream cone. When we got home, 45 minutes later, Colin woke up and looked all around his seat. I asked what he was looking for and he said "My ice cream, where did it go mommy?" Ha ha ha ha

Katherine said it was the best mother's day yet, I just might have to agree with her. I even got to come home and take a nap! Mother's Day rocked!!!

Weekend Road trip - Texas Hill Country

This past weekend we got to get out of town and explore a little bit of the Texas Hill Country. Friday started off with Katherine's Field Day at school. I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer running one of the games. It was lots of fun, had a great time playing with Katherine and her classmates. After 2 hours of Field day, her class had a pizza party. Katherine and I quickly came home and met up with Matt and Colin and we were on the road Friday by noon.  

We got to Fredericksburg where my parents where camping by 4:30pm. It was a lovely park they were staying in. It sat on a large creek and had nice hiking trails, a golf course and a nice place to grab a bite to eat. Friday night we went to an old tunnel that millions of bats fly out of at dusk. It was really neat to watch that many bats fly out. 

Saturday we had a packed day.. we went on a nice nature hike, we went to a place that grows fields and fields of wildflowers (it was so pretty), we took the kids exploring in a cave. The "Cave without a name" was amazing, it was nice because it was a smaller tour and you could get really close to everything in the cave. After that, the kids and my parents went back to the campsite to feed the ducks while Matt and I headed to the historic downtown for some shopping and drinks. a little day date if you wish. The downtown was really neat with cool shops, we picked out a few gifts and Matt spoiled me by buying me some dresses.

Sunday it was raining in the morning, so it spoiled some of our plans. We ended up eating breakfast with my parents at this neat little dinner at a small airport. You could sit there and watch the small planes land and take off, the kids loved it. We got in the car and headed home. But made a stop to see Pedernales Falls State Park. It is a beautiful park with a river that has a series of pools and waterfalls. We only spent an hour there just to get a view and let the kids stretch out their legs. 

Unknown to us, Matt had the stomach flu and got sick once we finished our hike, it was a long ride home. This week it has been through all of us.. at least it waited until AFTER our trip and not during it. 

Minus ending on the stomach flu, we had a very fun trip and got to see some parts of Texas we have never really spent much time in. I can see more trips in our future going back there.

Flowers on our nature hike

Katherine at Wildseed Farms.. It was so beautiful there, we took so many pictures!

Wildseed farm

Wildsee farms, lily pound

Exploring the Cave without a name.. the founders felt the cave was too beautiful for a name

They let you really get into a lot of aspects of this cave, the kids had a blast

Me carrying Colin all the way back up. My workout for the day

A flower by my parents campsite

Pedernales Falls State Park