Christmas at Home, 2007

Certainly hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did, although it was fast and furious!!

We arrived at my in-laws house in Burnsville Minnesota, (southern suberb in the twin cities) about mid day, on Saturday, 12/22/07. It was non stop from that moment, until we got home. Had a good time, but wished we'd had more time. Christmas was beautiful in the twin cities. It snowed on the 23rd, 24th, and on the 25th. They had the biggest Christmas day snowfall, since 1957, getting 5.7" of the fluffy white stuff on 12/25/07. As you can see from the picture, it was coming down hard. We ate and drank and shopped at the Mall of America,and had a swell time with my wife's extended family.

We left for home on 12/27, but had to make a stop in Rochester Minnesota. We spent the afternoon at Mayo Clinic. We didn't get back home to Illinois, until 1:00 AM 12/28.
We discovered by chance, (5 years ago), when Kyle our oldest, was 16, that he has a congential heart defect. An Atrial Septal Defect, (ASD).
http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/heart/asd.html
He never displayed any symptoms, or had any cardiac related problems. It was found after a routine chest x-ray, for a lingering cough, which showed his heart to be enlarged. A subsequent echocardiogram showed the defect. A ASD is a hole between the right and left atriums of the heart. It allows oxygenated blood two flow back into the side of the heart that pumps unoxygenated blood back to the lungs. Anyway, long story short.... Doctor recommended no action at that time, but to revisit in 3 to 5 years..... Kyle was given another echo on December 17th of this year, and the results showed defect still present. Coincidently, my employer's wife discovered she had same defect, only she didn't find out until she was nearly 50. Had a mini-stroke, and almost lost vision in one eye. She had hers repaired at Mayo in November of 2006. My boss called Mayo on 12/21, to see if Kyle could get scheduled in to see Dr. Hagler, who is one of their best Cardiac surgeons. They called my Cell phone on `12/24, to say we had a 2PM appt. on 12/27.
Dr. Hagler took fresh chest x-rays, and they did another echo. Heart definitely enlarged, and defect for sure still present.......his recommendation is to have it repaired. I've done some research, and it seems that in teens, this is not too uncommon, and in most young people where the defect does not close itself, the repair is recommended...... it can cause greater problems at older age, (my bosses wife a good example).
So, it looks like we'll be scheduling another visit to Mayo Clinic before June of this year. Kyle must have the procedure done before he graduates, as he's off my health plan at that time....... Dr. Hagler said to expect costs in the $20,000.00 range....jeez, good thing he isn't really sick!!