Yesterday Marshall (again) reminded us that he is the man in command.

He is the number one caller of shots.

He is the ginger little dude in charge.

His follow up appointment with Dr. Friedman and the transplant team left us with a whole bunch of unknowns.

There really isn’t a plan at this point.

It seems all involved parties, a crew of Harvard’s finest, are just waiting on Marshall to see what he’ll do.

Everybody’s hedging.

(If I were a betting woman, I would bet on Marshall. He’s a sure shot. 😉 )

A discussion with Dr. V (one of the heart failure and transplant team doctors) and Nurse Practioner E (of the transplant team) revealed some information but little reassurance. The cath last week showed the formation of the (evil) little collateral arteries which develop when a body has to compensate for not enough blood to the lungs (remember way back when I was pregnant? The lack of these little guys meant Marshall would be able to have his first surgery… ) Luckily, the presence of the collaterals has little affect on Round Two (the Glenn) and/or any other surgeries. And reaffirms my thinking that if the Glenn had happened a bit sooner, perhaps we wouldn’t be here now.  But there’s really no good in thinking that way.

There are so many risks involved that erring on the side of cautious is best.

Needless, back to yesterday: the transplant team needs more information regarding the anatomy of Marshall’s extraordinary heart. The surgeon requested a CT scan to get a better look at the Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return issue. If there is a possibility the pulmonary veins could eventually become stenotic, the likelihood of a transplant diminishes significantly.  So that’s that.

The good news is, Dr V announced that a member of the transplant team is certain he can “make the ventricle stronger” by deploying some more of the magic medical management which brought back Marshall’s smiles over the past week.

So we’re going to try the bigger “guns.”

The wild boys head back to New York tomorrow (hopefully as late as possible so I can soak up more quality time with all of four of my wild boys together).

And Marshall heads back to the hospital Sunday.   Between the ventricle function, collateral formation, and other factors, Michael and I just can’t justify waiting this out longer.

We don’t want to chance things getting worse. And the Boston team knows his heart function will improve once they deploy an intravenous drug called Milrinone.

So Monday he’ll go through a sedated CT scan to get images of his heart.  And another echo at some point soon I hope.

Hopefully by Tuesday we’ll know if he makes the transplant list.

And in the meantime, I can’t thank everyone enough.  From the team here for their work helping Marshall to those sending strong thoughts, prayers, wishes, and positive energies to our little miracle,  I just don’t have words enough to express my gratitude.

My goodness, the support means so  very much it often brings tears to my eyes (the good kind of tears :…-) ).

Sooooo I will send the thoughts & prayers back to you tenfold if you promise to please keep them coming…