Well, I had updated this last night, but then it got deleted. Hmmm. Anyways, let's see if I can remember everything I said. So, I haven't updated in a while because everything is going so well with Benjamin. He had his weekly echocardiogram last Friday. The dr said that everything is looking so good that we can now go to every 2 week appointments. He had been a bit concerned with some possible rejection because his heart was a little thick. But, every echo looked really good. His ejection fraction (EF) was about 75% on every echo. Whereas, the echo of his old heart, the EF hovered between 12-15%. And his vitals are always good and he is steadily gaining weight. SO this is excellent news. So, the dr went back and looked at the echo they first did after he got his new heart, and it seems the thickening was always there. So, he is not concerned at all about rejection. They also did this donor specific antibody test. It tests to see if Ben is building antibodies against the heart. He had only 1 tiny little antibody, which they are not concerned about at all. Yay!

SO, now we are going to every 2 week appointments. But, he will still most likely have to get blood drawn once a week. But, the good thing is, we can do that in New Lennox which is much closer to us than Chicago is. He will most likely have to get blood drawn every week for a while. His Prograf levels (one of the anti-rejection drugs) need to stay at a certain level to prevent rejection. But, since he is a baby, those levels are hard to maintain because he is always growing. So, for a while anyways, they need to closely monitor those levels. But, like I said, as long as we can do it at New Lennox, that is fine.

One fun thing, is seeing Abby and Klara interact with him. They are so good to him. Always trying to help in some way. They like to try to help with his meds. They bring the dirty syringes in to the kitchen for us. They like to carry his meds for me. Help with diapers. Anything they can do really. They also have gotten really good at knowing his meds and what time they are due. So much so that, the other night when Joe asked about his meds, I said I had done them all. Well, Klara pipped up, "except his aspirin. You didn't do his aspirin." It was kind of funny. The girls both have gotten pretty good at knowing his meds and what they are for. We have also drilled it in to them that his meds are for him only and that they are not to ever take them because not only will it hurt them, it will hurt him because he won't have his meds and he needs them for his heart to be ok. For some reason, if we make the point that he will get sick, it resonates more than them getting sick. So, all in all, everything is going really well. We have our next appointment on March 16th. And then the appt after that is for Ben AND the girls. On April 4th. We will talk to the dr about whether or not surgery is necessary to fix either of their PDA's. For Ben, it's just a regular clinic visit. All in all, great news all around though.