Isaiah's Kawasaki Disease Journey

To Whom It May Concern, Hello old high school acquaintance on Facebook, who usually scrolls past me on their newsfeed.     Greetings to the mom from school who knows my son has a medical condition, but is too afraid to ask me about it.   Dear second cousin Judith, whose mom told her that my son was really sick, “but thank God he’s okay now.”   To my neighbour up the street, to the kindergarten teacher at the school, to the mom sitting beside me at the doctor’s office and to the dad sitting beside me at swimming lessons. This letter is written to anyone that has a child in their life that they care about.    You may have heard of something called Kawasaki disease…but probably not.   Contrary to the name, it has nothing to do with motorcycles.   In short, Kawasaki disease (KD) is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries.   You may be thinking, “Acquired heart disease in children?   What d...

Dear Parent of a Kawasaki Disease Heart Warrior, I know how you feel.  I know how scary this all is. Maybe you have just received the news that your little (or maybe not so little) one has coronary aneurysms, because of Kawasaki disease.  What does that even mean!?  Is your child going to live with this condition for the rest of his life?  Is your child going to live to see his next birthday? Panic may have set in, but hopefully you have calmed yourself enough to listen carefully as you receive the first set of many medical instructions that will follow.  You may be told that your child needs to start taking blood thinners right away, otherwise he may develop a clot in one of his aneurysms.  A clot in his heart?!  That can't be good.  Perhaps no one mentions the word "heart attack," but later on you may realize that this is actually what the doctor is saying without actually saying it.  Fast forward many years and your child's cardiolo...

This post is long overdue.  To be honest, I was not sure if I was ever going to write it.  I have avoided it until now, because I did not want to think about the anxious days leading up to Isaiah's bypass, the difficult days after his surgery or the excruciatingly painful day of the actual operation.  These were the darkest days of my life. In most of my posts I attempt to weave in a theme or drive home a main point, but this time I will not even attempt to do so.  I simply want to share part of my family's experience with you.  I am sure there will be many details that have been forgotten due to the chaos of those days and others that have been blocked out by my heart and mind.  Please forgive any errors I may make with regards to medical details or terminology.  Keeping all that straight can be a challenge even on the best of days. Friday, April 5th, 2013 - Devastating news Isaiah finally went in for his cardiac catheterization on the Frida...