Plan F...

...or something like that.

For those of you who don't receive my Twitter/Facebook updates, I want to let you know that Ethan did NOT have his cath today. We woke up super early, packed our car with about 2 days worth of clothes, and headed to Duke. The whole morning I kind of had a feeling that Ethan's cold would stand in the way of this procedure, and it did.

The anesthesiologist was not comfortable putting him under with so much congestion in his upper airways; and if she wasn't comfortable with it, I sure as heck wasn't! No doubt, the whole team (us included) was frustrated. This whole mess is a bit of a double-edge sword. Ethan needs to have the cath in order to obtain some critical information for his future course of care. However, the risks associated with anesthesia rose significantly due to his cold. So do we cath him anyway, in order to get the info we need, and risk the (very high) possibility of him being in the ICU for a week or so on the vent? Or do we let the cold "run its course", go ahead with the cath when his lungs are in better shape, but potentially lose time in the process? Ethan's cardiologist assured me that we WILL get the info we need, hopefully sooner rather than later.

The NEW plan is to wait out the cold, with the hope that it will be clearing up in the next week or so. The doctor in charge of the cath would like to re-schedule for next Thursday, or potentially the following Monday. Of course, all of this depends on Ethan's health over the next week.

The hardest part is knowing that all of this is out of our control. There's absolutely nothing we can give him to make this cold go away any quicker. We can manage the symptoms, but only time will allow him to become healthy enough for anesthesia. And so the waiting begins...

(Have I mentioned that I'm impatient?!)