Kawasaki Update

It feels like it's been years since we were in the hospital with Aiden for Kawasaki Disease! Another lifetime ago, honestly. She's had multiple check ups since we were discharged on Christmas Eve, and I don't think I've done much updating on them. Her first post-hospital check-up in mid-January showed that she had developed two aneurysms on her coronary arteries. Adam and I heard the word aneurysm and just about passed out. The wonderful cardiologist quickly walked through what aneurysm actually means - dilation of the artery. It's not scary in itself, but could potentially cause problems if it got too big or shrunk too quickly. (The body. It's a crazy thing.) We were told we'd need to come back for more echo-cardiograms over the next few months to keep an eye on them, and that she would need an MRI a little further down the road to get a better understanding of what we were dealing with.

The MRI honestly scared me more than the hospital stay, because they would have to put her under anesthesia to keep her still enough to get the pictures they needed of her heart. After our third or fourth follow up with Dr. Iannucci (Saint Iannucci, if you ask me) in April, we scheduled her MRI for Thursday, July 28. We knew we would be back at CHOA for the MRI, but a different campus.

Our continual prayer through all of this, and especially leading up to the MRI, was that her heart would look perfect and they would have no answer for how it healed so quickly and perfectly other than it was a true miracle of God. In addition, we also asked God that if there was something wrong that He make it very known in the MRI so we could figure out our next steps immediately. Our church prayed for her, along with so many family and friends.

The day of the MRI arrived and we checked in at 6am. I know I said it in my original Kawasaki post, but pediatricians are angels. Truly doing God's work. They all have this gift of immediately dominating a room in the calmest, most gentle way. Everyone got down on our level - whether it was taking a knee or sitting in a chair - to walk us through every detail. The anesthesiologist, her nurses, the cardiologist - it's so clear that they are truly dedicated to all better.

Before they took her back, they gave her some medicine to make her loopy. It was hilarious! She was giggling and winding her head up. So funny. We gave our little love a kiss and away she went. They said the entire process would take about two hours, so we were pleasantly surprised when we heard she was done about an hour into it! She was not a happy camper when she woke up, and it took about 30 minutes to calm her down. We were told we would hear from our cardiologist the next week and we headed home.

I was surprised to see a voicemail from Dr. Iannucci that afternoon. A part of me instantly thought it must be bad news. Why would they be calling so soon? I can't even explain the relief I felt when he told me that her aneurysms were gone. Her coronary arteries are now measuring within the normal range for her age! Talk about answered prayers!!! You guyssss, God is such a good, good Father. (And I pray that I would say those exact same words if we had not received this ideal news.)

Aiden will most likely continue to see Dr. Iannucci once a year, but just for quick check-ups. As we've known all along - she's healthy as a horse!

Pictures of our goofy girl before she went back.