Paul, Julie & Baby Thomas: November 2007

As many of you know Thomas was recently admitted to the childrens cardiac ICU in Phoenix, AZ for early onset heart failure. Yeah sounds pretty serious and we were devestated, but before telling you the happy ending let me back up to the beginning of the day.

When Thomas was first sent home from the NICU after he was born his cardiologist gave us a paper of signs to watch for that would should his heart condition was progressing as expected. As the weeks went by we began checking off some of the what we thought were signs he may be beginning to struggle. The last couple of days we checked off several. We called his cardiologist, who said these were normal and to just have him checked out by his pediatrician to day if possible. Well, we called his office and his nurse tried to send us to the emergency room refusing to see us. FYI the emergency room in Prescott is not where you want to be with an infant with a heart problem (unless of course you enjoy helicopter trips to Phoenix) So what now? Well his pediatrician is a family friend and unfortunately it was his day off, but we called him at home, he talked to us over the phone and he called his office to make sure someone there would see us just to listen to his heart and lungs and make sure everything was okay and that the symptoms were not signs of something else. We got there and the doctor who saw him did all sorts of tests, poked around in his ears, and got him real worked up, he was crying so loud (which he never does) I was suprised she could say anything when she put that stethascope to his chest and back. Well she said she did, she said she heard fluid on his lungs, and called the cardiologist. The decision was if there was fluid on his lungs it either meant he had entered heart failure early or had a lung infection, neither of which would have been the good news.

So we were off to Phoenix stopping at home for some extra clothes for all of us, expecting to be staying several nights. Another blessing for Thomas and we put him in the car for the long drive. The cardiac team readied a room for him in the ICU so they would be ready for us when we arrived. The first comment we got when we walked through the doors to the brand new facility was, "he looks good" as they wondered out loud why we were there. As you can see they hooked him all up, did an ultrasound, a chest x-ray, monitored his vitals. The verdict: they don't hear or see any fluid on his lungs, his heart is not in distress, you can go home. While they offered us a bed for the night due to the long drive, we weren't going to let them find another excuse to keep our baby in the hospital, he's had enough, and we went home. We are go glad he's okay, and feel blessed that it all turned out. He's our miracle baby we just wish he would stop trying to scare us.