Not a Fun Day

On Thursday, Aug. 23, the day after we had running water again, Josh and I went to see his pediatrician to talk about the results of his echocardiogram. She told us that Josh has coarctation of the aorta, which she described as a narrowing, an abnormal narrowing. She couldn't tell me the severity or really much else about it, but told me that she was going to set up an appointment to see a pediatric cardiologist in Grand Rapids. By the time I got home there was a fax waiting for me saying that Josh could be seen the next day. So the next morning we packed the kids up, took Emmy over to Great-Aunt Kim and headed down state. Grandma M drove up from Indiana and met us there. We were there for over 3 hours, had another echocardiogram, an electrocardiogram, and, of course, spoke extensively with Dr. Lacina, the ped. cardiologist. The sobering news was that Joshua needs surgery to repair and open up his aorta. We were sent home that day numb, in shock, and then had to wait until Dr. Lacina could speak with the surgeon and get back with us to schedule the surgery. It was NOT a fun day. Aug. 18, 2007