Spring time....

Well it's about time for a post!  Josh is nearing the end of Kindergarten, and as much as I long for summer break, part of me is really sad for this school year to end for him.  He's done so well and has learned and developed so much, thanks to his amazing teacher and his very good friends.

This year at our new school we were really excited to learn that the kids could participate in the Junior Olympics.   The city holds community track meets for all of the schools in the district, and my kids were eager to participate.  For about a month and a half they practiced after school, training for their meets and I helped out with the coaching.  It was really fun for all of us.

I didn't know how all that running would go for Josh but told him to walk whenever he was tired.   (His cardiologist was just fine with his participation.)  He's such a competitive little athlete that he never wanted to walk, but it went fine for him.  He really kept up well, however in the evenings he was clearly much more tired than normal.

By the time the meet came around Josh was so excited for his big day, I was also excited but full of a wide range of emotions on his behalf. :)  As I watched the little guy put his toe to the start line, I started crying; tears of happiness, joy, maybe even a little sorrow that his whole life has been a scary race of sorts.  But overwhelming pride was what really filled my heart.

The best part was his huge smile as we met after his race.  He said, "Mom, I got last place and I didn't even cry!".  He's so funny.  It was a really great experience for us and we look forward to doing it again next year!

I don't think I posted about Josh's last cardiologist appointment.  Josh has a new cardiologist since Dr. T retired in December.  I was a little nervous about the idea of having someone totally new take over his complicated case.  However, we feel really good about our new doctor.  I feel like she's very proactive and listened to me thoroughly.  She has some concerns about Josh's function and some other things as well.  She wasn't terribly optimistic upon seeing his echo, but I'm happy to have some fresh eyes take a look and make some changes that are hopefully helping the situation.

We'll go back to see her pretty soon, we've been on a 3 month visit routine for a while now.  But even with the frequent visits, and the amount of meds Josh has always taken, its so easy to dismiss the complexity of his condition.  Day-to-day he does very well.  Lately he's been vomiting quite a bit after he eats, which is concerning because it's a sign his heart is functioning poorly, but even so, he just goes right back to running around and wrestling his little brother.  We're really happy with his quality of life, and that's all we can really hope for with  HLHS.