Hooray!

What a great day! Christopher had his cardiology appointment and echocardiogram and the news is wonderful! His aorta is improving, and his heart function has recovered. I feel like I'm on cloud nine.

The way that they assess the degree of blockage caused by the pucker in the GoreTex patch is to measure what's called the "gradient" - basically the difference in pressures on either side of the obstruction. They measure two numbers, the peak gradient (i.e. the highest number) and the mean. Last time, the peak was 74 and the mean was 47. This time, the peak was 46 and the mean was just 16!!!!! Hooray! Also, the wall of his ventricle was thickened last time, from working harder to pump against the obstruction, and now it looks completely normal.

On top of all that, he has gained a pound in the past month and now weighs 15 lbs, 6 oz (7.07 kg), which is around the 86th percentile for his age. He's also at the 78th percentile for length. He's a big boy.

He also hasn't had any of the terrible pale spells in the past week or two. He does look a little pale at times, but not the awful deathly, grey colour that we were seeing a month ago. No one knows what that was or why it went away, but we're happy it's gone.

The cardiologist said today that he is "cautiously optimistic," but he was beaming when he said it. I think everyone was a bit surprised by how much improvement there has been. After the echo (which took an hour), they brought us into a consultation room to see the cardiologist. He popped his head in a few minutes later and said, "I've looked at the pictures and they look so good that I want to repeat the test to be sure the numbers we have are accurate." So he got another tech to re-do the gradients to be sure they were right - and they were!

I can finally say that I feel like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Up until now, I was hopeful but still very worried that Christopher would have to have more surgery (with all the risks that brings) or would have problems with his heart in the future due to the strain of pumping against this blockage. And now, I'm finally allowing myself to believe that he is going to be a healthy, happy little boy, who can be as active as he wants to be. It makes me cry just to think about it.

We go back to CHEO in a month for another echo to confirm today's results (and possibly see more improvement, although the cardiologist cautioned us that it could look worse too, just because they are such tiny measurements). In the meantime, if you're looking for me, I'll be hugging my kids and my husband - and maybe dancing in the streets with a grin on my face.

All our love and gratitude to the hundreds of people all over the world who are reading this and following along on this journey. Whether we know you in 'real life' or not, we are tremendously thankful for your support, prayers, and love. Our little guy is so blessed to have so many people who care for him.