Castle fit for a King

Today Cole was asked to be moved from the NICU to the NICU Overflow in The Castle which is Sanford Children's Hospital. They considered him stable enough to move and needed the space in the NICU as babies continue to flow in. Oddly enough right before we moved, the NICU flight crew left for Orange City almost an exact week to +/- an hour of when Cole and I came.

This afternoon we met with the cardiologist receiving more information on Cole's heart condition. Best way to describe it is that Cole has a short circuit in his heart. He has been diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, or WPW syndrome, which is the presence of an extra, abnormal electrical pathway in the heart that leads to periods of a very fast heartbeat (tachycardia). The extra electrical pathway of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is present at birth.

You can google it of you are interested in more information. One thing the cardiologist did say had this condition gone undiagnosed, Cole would have very likely been one of the kids you hear about on TV that just dropped dead in the middle of football practice.

Fortunately since we know about it, Cole will have future trips to the doctor and will be monitored and medicated as long as necessary. There is also a procedure that may be considered as he gets into his teens called Catheter radiofrequency ablation. In catheter radiofrequency ablation, your doctor inserts thin, flexible tubes (catheters) in a blood vessel in your arm or groin and threads them through your blood vessels to your heart. Your doctor then applies heat (radiofrequency energy) or extreme cold (cryoablation) through the catheter to destroy (ablate) the extra electrical pathway causing your condition.

It is great to be so blessed to have so much medical knowledge around us. We do have one more slight modification to Cole's exit from this place. Saturday morning is the new scheduled date as he has one last dose of antibiotics to be administered around midnight to 1:00am Saturday morning. The one stipulation to Cole's dismissal is that due to his heart condition, he must be free of any episode in the last 48 hours prior to the time of exit. We are praying that will be the case as Mom and Dad are ready to leave this place and be home.