My Christmas Present Came Early

Whew! What a whirlwind few days it has been.  I couldn't bring myself to do more than casually mention on here about Matt's heart condition until it was all over.  Well, it's far from over, but the surgery itself is done and he's turned a corner.  Matt was diagnosed in July with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  It's a genetic condition that he's had since birth but went undiagnosed until this year.  Looking back, he's had symptoms for years that we wrote off as other things so I feel incredibly fortunate that it was caught.  We came to Houston on Monday for a 2nd visit with a specialist here.  When we came in October they thought he would most likely have to have surgery at the next visit but that was not confirmed until Monday evening.  His numbers were well above where they should be and the doctor said we would not be leaving before surgery was done.

Here's a visual.  The bottom part in the right picture is what was removed.

He had a heart catheter on Tuesday to check for blockages.  That was totally clear (so some good news) and that meant he was cleared for surgery on Wednesday.  They admitted him that night

And on Wednesday morning at 6:00 they were rolling him back to prep for surgery.  The whole process took the first half of the day but by 11:00 the doctor was out telling us everything had gone great.  The blockage was removed and the gradient (don't ask me what that is but it has something to do with blood output) has gone from 120 to 4 (a very good thing!). So, that part of this process is over, and I am breathing a little easier than I have in 5 months.  But he has a good ways to recovery.  We will be here another 5-6 days and they will also be implanting a defibrillator on Monday (on the RIGHT SIDE so it doesn't affect his shooting- his was very adamant about this;) but hopefully we will be home soon after.  And then it's 3 weeks until he can drive.  Please pray for him now but I'll take prayer for that process trying to keep him down. :)

Yesterday in ICU was honestly a little rough.  He was in a lot of pain and not able to rest much. But, by nighttime, they had gotten his meds figured out and he's been resting (mostly) comfortably since.  He will be there one more night (because his blood pressure is still a little too high to release him) but will hopefully be in a private room tomorrow.  I'll be sure to keep the updates coming.

On another note, things are going well at home.  Janet and Nana were there from Monday until today but Janet went home and my Dad and Nana are there now. (Dad was here with us for surgery)  They are taking care of Katie

It broke my heart to leave her- she had a temp of 102 that turned
out to be strep when we left Monday morning

And getting Lilli off to school and helping with the homework

But the most exciting thing there is Coco came today!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and it's the most wonderful time of the year! I've already gotten the only gift I wanted this year yesterday.  A husband (and Daddy) that's going to be healthy by the time Santa comes. :)