We arrived safely here in Boston at 10:45 a.m. and have been running ever since.

Marshall had his pre-op testing: labs, a chest xray, a check of his vitals, a check up with a nurse practitioner, a meeting to go over consent for the cath, and an echo with Dr. Friedman. 

He sailed through all of the tests but the echo.  Dr Friedman measured the gradient at 14.  And jokingly picked on me for “letting” Marshall get this way.

As if I am not kicking myself enough…
Hindsight is always, always 20/20 ;-).  I looked at pictures from two weeks ago and saw the changes I shouldn’t have missed.

I am just an exhausted mama.  And unfortunately not a doctor (yet.)

At this point (9 1/2 months!!) all I can do is live, learn, and seriously consider going into medicine… which would be helpful in this moment as we face so many unknowns regarding Marshall’s condition.

We will know more after the cath tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Dr Friedman thinks that after looking at Marshall and his echo that the blockage could be caused by three things. 

One I won’t mention because there is nothing any of us can do except hope for the best with everything we have got (which we already are.)

The other is the connection where the veins plug into Marshall’s atrium is too small.  So they will help it get bigger again.

The other is scar tissue formation or other not so great stuff is causing the back up.

Dr Friedman said it is likely that the cath will take care of the blockage.. a little balloon dilation and volia! 

Perhaps they will need to place a stent.

And perhaps they will reoperate. Still with bypass. Still with open heart surgery.  Still with Dr Baird.

I know with every cell in my body that Marshall’s on his own path.  It’s our job to help him to keep going in the right direction.

Knowing this makes me feel still pretty messy (just entirely cried out.)

And sooo tired.  Three hours of sleep last night for Michael and me doesn’t really help what Marshall is going through. 

On that thought, it is time to cuddle my baby and hope all of my boys are together again soon…

Please keep them in your thoughts & prayers & whatever you believe.  Especially this little ginger miracle lying next to me jabbering to his “da da daaaa”…

…sooo many thanks ❤