What a day

I want to write this post, not to remember how all of this happened, but because so many people were praying for us today, I believe you should know how everything played out.  First of all, THANK YOU for your prayers.  It has been a whirlwind of a day.  I reached out to a few people, and I've had love, prayers, scripture and offers to help flooding in all day.  God has truly surrounded us with such an amazing support system.

Last night, around bedtime, Noah started complaining of chest pain.  We snuggled with him, calmed him down and Grant slept with him all night.  The first words out of his mouth this morning were "My chest hurts."  Never what you want to hear from your child with cardiomyopathy.  He ran around and played this morning, and didn't seem too far off of normal, except for stopping every once in awhile to grab his chest and complain.  He ran up to the bus stop and threw snow balls with Alex the whole way.  But once we were loaded in the car to drive to his preschool he said he wanted to just stay home with me.  This is my social, on the move, loves his preschool and his friends, little boy.  Something was clearly not right.  We turned around to go home, and I called the pediatrician.

Dr. Dine has been treating patients for 30+ years.  I know this because he was one of my doctors for my whole childhood.  He is regarded as a great diagnostician.  He evaluated Noah and determined that his liver was enlarged.  He called down to Children's Cardiology to get their opinion because, apparently, an enlarged liver can point to heart failure.  Cue my anxiety.  Our wonderful cardiologist wanted us to come down at 1:00.  That afforded me just enough time to coordinate all of the bus pick-ups, lunch, etc. and still make it down to Children's.  My husband, immediately left work and came home to go with us (there's nothing quite sweeter than watching your husband love your kids so dearly).  My mom also left work and came to my house to watch the other kiddos.  Off we went.

Upon examination at the hospital, it was determined that his liver was NOT, in fact, enlarged.  The cardiologists believe he has costochondritis, an inflammation where the ribs connect to the sternum.  A few days of ibuprofen and he should be good to go.  It's not dangerous, it just hurts.  His EKG was normal, well, ok, "normal" for him.

So, okay, there are a number of ways in which to interpret all of this.  #1--the pediatrician got it wrong, or jumped the gun.  He mistook something else for an enlarged liver.  Knowing him and his reputation and experience, I don't really buy it. #2, the cardiologists blew us off or missed the enlargement of the liver.  Again, knowing these cardiologists and the fact that they evaluate heart failure patients all day long, I don't buy it.  So what happened in the 2 hours between the 2 appointments to Noah's liver?  My explanation--God healed him.  Is it a cut and dry healing?  No.  Could either of the doctors have been wrong?  Absolutely.  But I choose to believe in the power of prayer and that God was at work today.  So thank you, all, for your prayers.

There were many moments today when my mind would race and I would envision tests and hospital stays and a new "normal" for our life with our little guy's life having a different tone to it.  I envisioned us starting  down the path of "full time heart patient" rather than a kid that just happens to have a heart condition.  But tonight, my sweet Noah ran, jumped, played with his siblings and I got to tuck his sweet sleeping body into his own bed in our house.  What a blessing.