The Kid's Got a Lot of Heart

First of all I just want to thank everyone who has called and emailed and shown their concern for our family and for our little guy. He is doing well, although sick of being in the hospital, and not too pleased about wearing those awful hospital pj's with the open back, but other than that, he is ok. We are grateful to live in a place that has such a great facility for kids who have health problems, and feel very lucky that our son was not admitted for something more serious, as many of the other kids in the hospital remind us of that daily. So here is the update:

Tony P. was admitted on Friday night with asthmatic symptoms (wheezing, crackling in his breathing), and after a chest x-ray it was determined that he had pneumonia. He was taken by ambulance to the Children's Hospital, where they did some more tests and put him on the asthma pathway (which means puffers every 20 minutes for as long as it takes for his breathing to regulate). It was a long night, and I think I probably slept all of 1 1/2 hours all night, but they did admit us to a room by 8am Saturday morning. What has followed has been kind of a blur - lots of puffers, lots of antibiotics by IV, and not very much sleep for me. We have been told a variety of things - first that he had pneumonia and asthma, then that he had bronchialitis, that he had an enlarged liver which could mean any number of things, including cancer, and finally today a cardiologist told us what we have been suspecting, but not wanting to hear. They are pretty sure (and I say "pretty sure" just because everyone says they think they know what's going on, but the next day they change what the diagnosis is completely) that all of his complications, including the fluid in his lungs, can be attributed to his heart condition. He has had this condition since he was born, and although we have monitored it closely and he has a cardiologist, apparently things have regressed, or else we have been missing something all along. Anyway, we don't know for sure, but they are going to discuss options tomorrow as to how they can improve his quality of life by fixing his heart, however that may happen. So essentially, we don't know anything for sure yet, and he's still in the hospital. The positive side of this is that his dad works right across the street, so is able to pop in for visits frequently, and we have had a lot of support from family and friends who have been so willing to help out. They finally took him out of isolation tonight, so he is able to leave his room, and he no longer has an IV coming out of his arm, so he can move around freely. I have never seen him quite as happy as when he got to go for a ride in a wheelchair all around the hospital in his little gaping open hospital gown. He was thrilled.

Anyway, I don't have much else to report right now, but will try to keep the posts up to date as I have access to a computer. He is in good spirits, and we are happy that he is feeling that way, and optimistic that with time and good physicians, they will be able to figure out what is wrong and be able to fix it. And that someday soon we'll be able to bring him home.