Gee, it's been a while.

Hello all!

I know it has been a couple of months since I last updated the blog and I guess now is as good a time as any to do so. Well it is the beginning of October and life is in full school swing. Jacob and Noah are in 2nd and 1st grade respectively and Emily has begun Head Start here in Newmarket. Needless to say mornings in the Kelsall house are rather hectic. The big kids are really flourishing in school and seem to be enjoying every minute of it. Micah has been doing well too. Last month he had new tubes placed in his ears and the doctor also dilated his throat to ease the stenosis below his vocal cords. It was only an over night stay and Micah was lucky enough to meet one of the hospital's therapy dogs while we wondered the hallways of 8 East. He has Strep throat right now but in about a week he'll be back to normal.

His heart seems to be okay for now. With many meetings between all of the doctors in Micah's cardiac team and a couple check ins here and there, we think we have a plan of attack. For those who don't know, Micah's left ventricle has weakened since his last cardiac check in back in April. In April, everything looked good and we all thought things would stay that way for many years with the odd pacer battery change here and there. While we were having "Pre Op Day" in Boston, the doctors found some concerning things on Micah's Echo and EKG. It looks like Micah's heart is not handling the pacing system he has as well as he should. With this issue his left ventricle has weakened and there is extra fluid in his lungs (which may have caused the respiratory distress on August 3rd) and liver. The hope is that an entirely new pacing system will boost the strength of his heart beat and ease the stress to his left ventricle. With the stronger heart beat the fluid in his lungs and liver should resolve itself.

There was a brief period of time when Jason and I were considering replacing his Pulmonary Valve during this procedure in the hopes that the new valve would also help ease the stress on his heart. With a few more phone calls and doctors meeting to talk about this, we have decided to hold off on the new valve until we see how well Micah's heart is handling the new pacer system. The hope is that everything will go well and Micah won't need his new valve until, at the earliest, he is 10-15 years old. The hope is that he will be able to grow to almost his full adult size before they replace his valve.

We are now waiting on Children's Hospital Boston to call and schedule the new pacer surgery. I'm going to assume it'll be mid November when it happens. But, as we all know, life will continue before and after and I am trying to stay positive and not panic every time Micah looks a little off to me. Please keep Micah in your thoughts as life moves towards his next surgery.