Grant's Journey

Grant has been out of the cath lab for a few hours now and we are feeling incredibly lucky for how everything went. Grant happily played in the surgical waiting room until it was our turn. He didn't complain about being hungry at all which was such a blessing. Dr. Gray did his cath and was very sweet taking Grant back and helping him feel comfortable. He reminded us of all the risks and told us his plan was to avoid his Fontan conduit as much as possible to try and minimize more clots escaping. His plan was to check pressures in his heart first and then depending on how things looked, he would inflate a balloon inside the Gortex shunt to temporarily occlude the hole. If it held and Grant could handle the pressures in his heart, he would place a device to close the fenestration. This will prevent future clots from escaping, but it will also remove that pop off valve for high pressures across his shunt. We met with Dr. Gray about 3 hours after we left Grant. He had a big smile on h...

It has certainly been a while since I have updated on Grant's blog and for those who don't know us personally, I apologize! I intended to do yearly updates on Grant since this has been his medical blog, but we have been too busy enjoying life! I am dusting off the blog so I can keep our family and friends aware of what has been happening recently. Two weeks ago, Grant and his brother Miles were sitting in the tub getting their hair washed when Grant started panicking and yelling that he was spinning and everything was spinning. He then slumped to one side and we watched the left side of his face droop and his left side go limp. His speech was slurred and then his right side went limp as well. We immediately got Miles out of the tub and attended to Grant. He began vomiting over and over and was looking very dusky blue/gray. By the time we were able to quickly rinse out his hair and get him to our room, his heart rate was in the 150's (high for him), but his sats were in no...

This post needs to be prefaced with a few facts. #1. I am a geek. I will fully admit it. #2. I am a total germaphobe. Grant's needs have created this in me. I now fully embrace the title and take it upon myself to do this crazy experiments, and then share my findings with all of you. You're welcome. :) Ok, here is a little back story. I have been using essential oils for a few years now. It started as an attempt to help boost Grant's limited immune system and try to keep him out of the hospital. I started to use more and more when I saw the positive results that they had for our family. Over the last few years, I have developed a decent oils collection and am a total oils junkie. I have wanted to see if cleaning with essential oils would be a good option for our family, but I am INCREDIBLY hesitant to believe all the posts on Pinterest that give "recipes" for natural cleaners that use about 20 drops of oil to 8+ounces of water. I believe in the potency of oils...

Oops. Has it really been another 10 months without a blog update? Please accept my apologies and let me know if you would like to have access to our family blog that is updated more frequently! In the last month, I have been connected to a few new heart families who have told me that Grant's blog has been a source of comfort and inspiration to them. It has spurred me to remember that even though Grant is doing great, keeping a small update here and there is very important! This blog has continued to be kept as a means for medical updates throughout Grant's life, as I document the day to day stuff on our family blog. So, get ready for a little overview of the last 10 months! Grant is now 4 years old. Back at Christmas time, my mother in law got the boys matching outfits for church. Unfortunately, Grant picked up a nasty respiratory virus in November, and another in December. He had a cardiology check up in December and he was still fighting the residual effects of both virus...

Oh boy. We certainly have some catching up to do since my last post on Grant's blog was from February! Oops! We have had some big things happening around here... Mr. Grant turned three way back in March. He had a Curious George party with his grandparents and made us all laugh. Grant got a little brother in May. He wasn't really very pleased to have him here, but after a few weeks of refusing to acknowledge that baby Miles even existed, he had a change of heart. Grant asks daily when Miles will be big enough to play toys with Grant. We have really enjoyed summer. Grant has had many trips to the zoo, the pool, the park, playdates, and general summer fun. Kyle has been working tons of hours at work and going to school for his MBA in the evenings, so we thoroughly enjoyed the 8 weeks he had off this summer. School starts again next week and Grant and I will both be going through some serious withdrawal. Grant got to play with cousins and hammed it up for this little im...

Today marks the kick off of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week which is held every year from February 7-14. In years past (see 2009 , 2010 , and 2011 ) I have shared some pictures and statistics about CHD's and their prevalence. This year, I have not taken the time yet for our typical CHD photo shoot, and I figure if you have been following Grant's blog this long, you are probably more aware than most about congenital heart defects. Instead, I will link to a few different blogs that are highlighting some families journey's with CHD's. These two blogs are sharing lots of stories this week. http://whenlifehandsyouabrokenheart.blogspot.com/ http://pinterest.com/ruth_h/the-faces-of-chd-congenital-heart-awareness-week-f/ In the heart community, we are sharing these stories to hopefully make a difference. If one more expecting mother can go into an ultrasound and hear the dreadful words, "There is something wrong with your babies heart..." and som...