Post-Ops

So last week, Stevie got his stitches out and had a good check-up. Then yesterday, we had the little guy's follow up appointment with the Cardiologist and so far everything looks great! Everyone has been happy with the way his surgery turned out. His EKG looked fine. His saturations (oxygen levels) are at 98% (!!!) This in itself is amazing, when the highest we've ever seen before this was 85%. There's still a slight murmur, but that will probably always be there, just not as loud as it used to be. They did his ultrasound and we finished up the appointment in her office with this conversation...

Doc: So, everything looks great. The ultrasound shows that there is a slight leak between the two chambers where they patched the hole, but that is not totally unusual. It's quite a bit of patchwork over that big hole... So we will go ahead and plan on seeing you back here in 3 months.

Me: Three months! Even with a leak?? Are you sure??

Doc: Yeah, most likely the leak will just fix itself. It's not a huge concern.

Me: Three months! (I look at Stephen and back at her.) But what do I do? Like, what do I look for? What?! It seems like such a long time!

Doc: I know! But he'll be fine. Just call us if anything really, really strange happens, like if he faints or something. The problem is not something that will hurt him overnight, even if something goes terribly wrong. We will see it before we need to intervene. There will be major warning signs.

Me: Three months. Okay. Three months! (Deep breath) This is the first procedure he's had with no complications, so okay! Three months.

Doc: Have a nice holiday season.

Me (in my head): HOLIDAYS?! I WON'T SEE YOU UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAYS?!! OH MY GOSH! But there's a leak! And I don't know what I'm doing!

Me (out loud): Okay, you too. Thanks!

So yeah. No cardiology appointment for three months. And eventually we'll get it down to once a year. So we went from seeing them every month to once every 3 months to eventually once every 6 months and then once a year. ONE appointment a YEAR! It makes me nervous and happy all at once. Stephen will be a year old the next time we're in that office.

And damn, what a year it has been. I mean, really.