Joseph Fan Club: Surgery rescheduled to July 29th

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 Hi Joseph Fan Club,


Joseph's heart surgery has been rescheduled to July 29th. Again, Joseph and I will go up there the day before for pre-surgical testing (including his third COVID-19 nose swab*) and then arrive bright and early for surgery the next day.

In case anybody is new to the Fan Club or doesn't remember the exciting adventures from a few years ago, here's a recap:

* Prior to being born and adopted by us, Joseph was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries. In a nutshell, the two main arteries that  are supposed to go from the heart to the lungs and body are flip-flopped. How does this happen? Nobody knows. It doesn't seem to be hereditary. It doesn't seem to be related to any sort of prenatal trauma, illness, substance abuse, etc. It just happens.

* After being born, Joseph was in the NICU at Children's Hospital of Phoenix for six weeks while they did a couple of procedures to get his blood oxygen saturation levels high enough to fly home on an airplane. The flight home was utterly terrifying (for us, not him) and completely uneventful.

* At 11 months old, Joseph had his first heart surgery, called a Glenn procedure, that rerouted his circulation to improve blood oxygen levels to the upper half of his body. This was done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and he was in recovery for six days. After surgery, he almost immediately turned from sort of a sallow gray color to a nice tannish pink color and his oxygen levels went from mid-70s to mid-80s. (Yours right now is 99-100%. Aren't you lucky?)

* Between then and now, Joseph remains awesome. (Evidence. More evidence.)

* And now, surgery 2 of 2, a Fontan procedure, is scheduled in two weeks. It will reroute the circulation around for the lower half of his body. 

You are now up to date.

Love,
Lisa

* Have you had one of these done yet? They're awful. Wear your masks, folks.



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