Good Morning and Happy Friday!  The snow blew through so fast last night there's barely a dusting.  I know this will be the best birthday gift Martin could have asked for...yep, it's Martin's birthday.  Everyone please call/text/email him with Happy Birthday wishes, it'll embarrass him and buy me time to work on getting his cards today. 

We had our appointment on Wednesday in DC at the cardiology clinic and while there, a chest xray was done.  The Dr was looking for pleural effusions or haziness and thankfully, the xray was good.  Here's a picture of Caelen smiling for the xray.

He's such a ham.

Next we got a checkup and tried to understand why his oxygen levels have been all over the map lately.  He seems fine during the day (for the most part), then at night his o2 levels drop.  (more on this later)  The Dr didn't seem terribly concerned right now b/c he looks stable and he's happy so we met next with Kanishka, the Dr that will be doing Caelen's cath next month.  Kanishka said that going in through the hepatic artery (liver) is not the easiest way, but in kids like Caelen where access is an issue because of occlusions or scar tissue in the femoral arteries, this is more common.  If I am repeating this correctly, an incision will be made on his right side and they will go in above his liver but below his diaphragm.  Any of my medical friends feel free to correct me.  I just write this stuff.

All the while Caelen is sitting on my lap getting very bored and throwing his toys on the floor.  When I wouldn't give them back, he tried very hard to bite me, repeatedly.  Yep, we have a baby vampire on our hands.  I believe the common term is "toddler."

So Martin and I felt relieved after talking with Kanishka and are anxious to get this procedure behind us.  We're all hoping that this cath will give us an answer as to why Caelen still has a dependency on oxygen, as well as a better idea of how much longer we can wait before doing the next surgery. 

We saw GI yesterday and while there, the pulmonologist came out to say hi.  I told her about Caelen's o2 dropping, went over all the weird stuff and mentioned his sneezing fits.  She said he probably has post-nasal drip (allergies) and to try benadryl for 3 days, see how he does, then switch to something like claritin.  I feel so much better having run into her b/c we kept thinking all of this was tied to the sneezing, but I guess we were asking the wrong doctors.  So last night we gave the benadryl a try and his oxygen levels were much improved.  Hopefully this is our answer.

One last funny note b/c I know this is getting longer...
I was getting Caelen ready for bath last night and took his diaper off after safely waiting an hour for his diuretics to work.  He was having naked time on the rug and loving rolling around.  I would like to mention that I never do this out of fear of accidents but thought I was in the clear.  So I am on the floor with him eating his toes and said, "Caelen, you need your bath, your feet smell like your butt!  Ewww."  Then I turned to see his butt and was almost nose deep in poop!  Yep, he pooped then almost rolled in it.  There should of been video of me holding Caelen on his side with my foot while grabbing the wipes and a diaper with my hands and cleaning the poop.  He will hate me for this when he's older.  Perhaps this is why he bites me now.

I have been trying really hard to get video of Caelen making noises and finally succeeded.  Here's a too long video of Caelen's elusive screeches.  I don't know how to edit so fast forward to about 1:14, 2:24 and 4:12.

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Love,
Katye, Martin & Caelen