Feelin' Groovy

I'm an old soul when it comes to music. I love me some Simon & Garfunkel. Slow down, you're moving too fast. You've got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy.

We are feeling groovy around here.

Owen's check up appointment went very well. His oxygen saturations were 90% which is one of the highest he's measured in the clinic. His growth was 50th %tile for all of his stats, word up to his dietitian!

After our appointment O needed to get some labs drawn. The lab is a super fun place to go, especially in flu season with complete germ phobes and during a downtime in the system. Oh yes, and with a 2.5 year old who you WANT to be more of a germ phobe. After 45 minutes then 3 minutes of holding him down, and a few rounds of the Abc's through tears, we wrapped it up and came home.

2 hours later (so quick!) I got an email with his results: his Hemoglobin, hematocrit, and RBC levels were all elevated. This was expected and consistent with his elevations in the past. The problem with his saturations being in the 80's-90's% is that his body is constantly trying to adapt to have that be kosher. In that process, his body produces more RBC's to attempt to bind more oxygen to in turn raise his saturations. But because of the way his heart anatomy is (which is improved from before with the second surgery, the Glenn) the mixing of the blood just isn't going to get up any higher no matter what the RBC count is. The problem with an elevated RBC over time is the risk for stroke due to thicker blood.

He needed his daily aspirin dose upped anyway due to his weight, so now he takes one chewable daily. And we hope that is enough to keep any strokes very VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY far away from us.

All in all it was a great appointment, no surgery in the near future! Wahooooo!! We still are continuing our bubble boy way of raising Owen, basically a lot of hand washing and keeping large social get togethers through cold/flu season to a minimum. He gets out and about but why not keep him healthy and out of the hospital? Exactly!

On another note, Buster is settling in quite well. He has a lot of energy but burns that off quickly and is ready to nap. Blue has adjusted well and she is getting more play time in than ever before! Our old dog Arthur wasn't much of a play fighter, they just did their own thing. Buster and Blue go out and play 2-3 times per day for about 30 minutes. It is awesome, and Owen knows that if the dogs come running he goes up against the house out of their way.

 This was not an easy photo to take! I am holding a treat up (the angle was a little too high!) for Buster.

Blue and Buster sharing a bed. Other big news= DOGS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE BEDROOM AT NIGHT! We started to lose many precious zzzz's over Blue's snoring sounds. When we would lock her out she would whine lots and then we would lose more zzz's. With the addition of Buster we have been able to kick out the dogs and reclaim our room. It feels so good! Chris and I are both trying to become deeper sleepers. Being parents has made us both very light sleepers:(.