Grandma Hughes visited Sam today. He was happy to see her and get in some good Grandma snuggling time.

We also had our cardiology appointment at UW Children's Hospital. Sam was not too happy about being poked and prodded. He had yet another EKG and was sent home with a heart monitor for the night. It includes a few sensors stuck to Sam's chest. We simply take it off and take it back to UW tomorrow night. They can download the stats over 24 hours and perhaps gather some more information. The EKG results looked good.

Our main goals today were to get Sam some more Grandma love, make sure he is still doing well, and get some guidance as to what to expect in the future. The good news is that he is doing well. The prognosis for the future is foggy, as every child is different. The pediatric cardiologist is great. She doesn't sugarcoat and she obviously knows her stuff. Around 20% of kids in Sam's situation grow out of the SVT episodes. Others may stay on medication their entire lives, or opt for surgery. The risks outweigh the rewards for surgery at this point. The medicine is working, his vitals are solid, he might grow out of it, and surgery to freeze or zap the extra electric connection would be significantly less complicated a few years out. So, the plan now is to use the medicine for at least one year. If he is still doing well we may take him off it and see how he does for a few days. If his rate jumps again, he's back on digoxin (the heart med). There are many low probability chances for setback, but right now things look ok.

He's a great little guy. In the last 24 hours he has become much more interested in who is feeding him and what is going on around him. Late last night he didn't want to sleep so I took him for a walk around the house. When we came into the dark sunroom he saw the moon. He picked up his head, opened his eyes and mouth wide, and just stared for a few seconds. He likely only saw a big white blur, but it was still pretty amazing.