Do mom's ever NOT worry?

When Rylan was born he had some breathing problems, and they were never able to figure out the cause of them. He had a lot of tests ran at that time, including tests on his heart. At that time we found out that he did not have a right superior vena cava (there should be one on each side of the heart, where the blood drains from the head and enters the heart), but they told us that it should never cause him any problems. We really haven't thought much about it since.

A few months ago, he started telling me that he was having a hard time breathing, and I didn't think much about it. I just figured that I would keep an eye on him. Then he started telling me that his "heart" hurt when he would jump on the trampoline or ride his bike. Then I began to worry.

I took him to our pediatrician, who made us an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist at Primary Childrens. He said that he just didn't want to take any chances, especially since Rylan's heart is different as it is.

At PC they did a chest x-ray, EKG and an Echocardiogram. The doctor was concerned after watching the echo, so he scheduled us to have an MRI done. Unfortunately w/ little kids they have to sedate them to get them to be absolutely still. So, we got the results back from the MRI and we learned a few new things about Ry's anatomy, not only is he missing his right SVC, but he is also missing his left jugular vein, and the vein that returns the blood from his left arm back to his heart, is badly misshapen. But even with all of that there is no explanation for his shortness of breath and chest pain. They said that his heart is functioning well and beating strongly, so there should not be any reason to worry about it. That was a relief, but we still don't know what is causing the problems.

So, it's back to our pediatrician and then probably on to a pulmonologist to have his lungs checked out. Hopefully someday we can get to the bottom of his problems, and he can run and play without pain and be able to breathe like everyone else.

He's been such a good boy through all of this. He's a pretty tough and patient little kid. Thank goodness!

Before he got his IV they gave him a "little buddy" to learn about the IV. He got to prep him for an IV and put it in.

Rylan was so brave when he got his IV, he didn't even cry. But then they couldn't get it in. So the 2nd (and 3rd) tries, he was not so nice - I don't blame him though-They hurt!

The medicine they gave him to sedate him was some pretty strong stuff, they have them sleep for 2 hours afterwards, because otherwise they wake up really mean.
Little did they know, that Rylan likes to sleep A LOT. He would not wake up! He is so stubborn, all he had to do was open his eyes and look at the nurse and they would let us leave, but he wouldn't! I asked him after why he wouldn't open his eyes and he said "I didn't want to" - what a stinker! After 4 hours in recovery (including 2 hours of unsuccessful attempts to wake him up using cold wash cloths and popsicles),

they decided we could go home

When we got home he slept some more,
in fact he didn't wake up until the next day!
And then, he didn't even know he had missed a whole day!

So, that is Rylan's month of April in a nutshell.