This is what success looks like

Tiernan has a four chambered heart.

(for some reason this video won't play correctly, but you get the idea, I hope)

He had his first follow-up with Dr. Park today and his echo blew me away.

I think it blew several other people at Northwest Congenital Heart Center away too.

On the left is his echo from today.  The one with 4 chambers.  And as Dr. Park said (not a direct quote) it is one thing to reconstruct the heart as Dr. Hanley did.  It is another thing entirely for the LV to be functioning so well!  In fact, pretty damn close to normal!!!!  

If you look closely, you can see how much more space is in the LV (which is actually on the right side of each screen) as well as how crazy that common AV valve was before surgery.  

The other thing that I cannot quite comprehend just yet is that the CoA has all but disappeared!!!!  Dr. Park said the gradient is about 16 and he could probably find a similar gradient in my heart.  No reason but the normalized blood flow for that I guess.  Because, as we know, Hanley did not touch that coarctation, and they cancelled the cath that would have addressed it.  

The only remaining issue is the mitral valve.  It still leaks "moderately".  This is still there because the LV still needs to relax and the LA pressures are still higher than normal and those things push the blood back through the mitral valve.  Unless this rights itself over time, he will likely need a new mitral valve someday.  We hope that, if he does, it can wait until he is 15 or so.  That way he would be big enough so they could place the adult sized valve.

I will not cross this bridge yet.

This man.

 How does one adequately express their feelings about someone who literally transforms your child's heart, and, as a result, his future.  I can't.  I think I mentioned awhile back how Jason saw him in the hospital and he was totally star struck.  It was as if Hanley were a rock star.  

Well, he is a million times better than a rock star.

 

 So throughout Tiernan's recovery, his doctors and nurses and other therapists were competing fiercely to be the first to receive the highly coveted high five from Tiernan.  

On the last day, Lupe got it.  Lupe was our medical case manager.  (I don't even know if that is the correct term.)  At any rate, he is one cool dude, who just happens to be from Yakima and has gone to the Puyallup Fair on numerous occasions.  

 This was the big moment.  Walking out of that building with Tiernan was so surreal.  I couldn't help but think the other shoe was about to drop.  

I'd be lying if I said I'm not still feeling that way.  This is too perfect.  

But no.  Things really have gone this great!

 We stayed one night at the RonDon and decided it would be silly to take Tiernan out to a restaurant so we ordered in.  And who wouldn't order from Pizza My Heart on such an occasion?

 Jason flew home with Tiernan the next day and that all seemed so fast given he had only just left the hospital and the security of all the monitors telling us his sats and HR and BP and everything.  

Jason thinks he stared at Tiernan's nostrils the entire flight to watch for any sign of "flaring".  :)

But we all made it home by Friday evening thanks to Jason's mom, Kathy driving Tristan home, and my mom flying to San Jose and then driving the 2 days up to Puyallup with me.  

We were greeted with this great banner from our sweet neighbors, Alisha, Sophia, Evan and Jerrod.

Since both Grandma and Nonni were there, we figured we would celebrate his 5th birthday a few days early.  He tried to put out the flame like a proper firefighter.

 He did, however, ultimately resort to the traditional method. 

 I honestly have no clue how I managed to catch such a perfect photo of these to boys.  

 On Tiernan's ACTUAL 5th birthday, he donned his crown (made by his pre-school teachers) and we headed out to celebrate in style at Red Robin.  Yummmmm.

He devoured 90% of a corn dog and completely ignored the giant ice cream sundae they placed in front of him.  ?!!!!  He has not had much of an appetite since coming home, but no ice cream???  

Weird.

 Tiernan has been pretty excited about the Coast Guard since our visit to the USGC Blue Shark before we left for California.  This pretty much made his life.  

Back to today.....

Tiernan announced that he never wanted to leave NWCHC.  Ever.  He loves Dr. Park.

We do too, of course, but something has to be done about that whole Green Bay Packers thing.

Seriously.

After such a happy cardiology appointment, we absolutely felt a visit to Legendary Doughnuts was necessary.  Tiernan was pretty psyched about that giant doughnut (which, FYI, is approximately half the size of the original version....the lovely girl working there made it on the normal-sized doughnut.)

He did not finish that baby, though.  Which is why we will be resuming our visits with Dr. Pickens in GI.  He will see him primarily because he will need a swallow study to take place, but also to get in with nutrition again to see if we can pack some pounds back on.  He lost roughly 4 pounds during his stay, which is not unexpected.  But he is pretty skinny.  And his appetite has not fully returned.  GI can just help us come up with creative ways to maximize our calories in the foods he wants to eat.