Isaiah's Kawasaki Disease Journey

Since Isaiah's Kawasaki disease journey began, there have been many things I have learned. One lesson that has become a reoccurring theme lately is when it comes to your health, or that of a loved one, there is no such thing as having too much information. Cardiac MRI Isaiah had a cardiac MRI done in mid March to further investigate his heart function.  Although he has an echocardiogram done every 3 months, it is my understanding that he will require a more complete diagnostic test at least once a year. Last year he had two cardiac catheterizations done, but our cardiologist decided on a cardiac MRI this year, as it would be able to give us an equally good understanding of the status of Isaiah's heart.  I was thrilled by this news, as the MRI is non-invasive, which would mean no incision to worry about and virtually no recovery time, except from the effects of the anesthetic. The results of the MRI confirmed what the cardiologists had suspected from last year's cardi...

It started as a routine check-up I took Isaiah for an echocardigram on Thursday as part of his routine three month check-up. When the technician brought in a cardiologist to take a look I knew something was wrong. Neither the technician nor the cardiologist asked us to stay, so we proceeded to get Isaiah's blood work done and I thought perhaps my paranoia was getting the better of me.  However, when we arrived at the phlebotomy clinic I found Isaiah's cardiologist in the hallway looking for us.  When a very busy and very prominent cardiologist takes the time to seek you out personally, the news can't be good.  My heart sank and I braced myself for what he had to say. It turns out that Isaiah's echocardiogram revealed that there was a problem with his heart function.  All previous echos had shown that his heart function was normal, but this one, in conjunction with the ECG, indicated that his left ventricle was not contracting as strongly as it should be.  Th...

Shock, anger, sadness When we received the news about Isaiah's coronary artery aneurysms we were in shock and disbelief.  It was so surreal and I felt like it wasn't really happening.  I sat there numbly and listened to the nurse explain that we needed to start giving Isaiah blood thinner by injection twice a day.  Even after they went through all of the information with us I still felt like it wasn't happening and that I wouldn't REALLY have to inject my little guy twice a day, would I? In addition to our shock, there was also a lot of anger and sadness.  We were always told that because Isaiah was treated within 10 days of the onset of the fever that his chances of developing the aneurysms were less.  The questions swirled in our heads.  What if the hospital had been more timely in administering each round of treatment?  What if they had done another echo before he was discharged?  What if they had done a follow-up echo sooner?  We are n...