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Pictures from Stage 1, the Norwood
Pictures from Stage 2, the Glenn
Pictures from Stage 3, the Fontan Please note - these pictures, for the most part, are "safe". If you're interested in post-op pictures from the Norwood, please email us at us@babysamson.com for access.

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Four years old
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NSTAR's Walk for Children's Hospital Boston
3 years old & cardiology visit
Wild Man
Update and Santa
Blue episodes and a cardiology appointment today
Ellie's Fontan
Post-Fontan Cardiology Visit
"You've gotta just let him be."
Sammy's Recovery from the Fontan
Life Post-Fontan
Bump from home
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Fontanized - Day 6 Update
Day 4 Post-Op 2:30pm Update
Fontanized, Day 4 Post-Op
Bump #2 - Pneumothorax
Little Bump
Fontan Post-Op, Day 2
Extubated!
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Checking in
Update, 2 years old, Fontan date, more
And we're free!
Pre-Fontan cath DONE.
Cath Day
Day 1, Pre-Fontan Cath Prep
Pre-Fontan cath
Twenty-three months: chatterbox, the holidays and the cath
Twenty-two months
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Eighteen months
Seventeen months
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Miles for Miracles - Together in Heart.
Sedated echo
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One year.
11 1/2 months old!
Almost 10 months old!
Cardiologist Visit
Just about nine months!
Who is this kid, and what did you do with my baby?
Eight months old!
7 months old!
Coming up on 7 months
Six month update
Post-op Checkup & Life post-Glenn
And we're outta here!
Waiting to go home & a few firsts...
Truckin' along
Step-Down!
And the lines are OUT!
Happy updates
Post-Glenn, Day 4
Post-Glenn, Day 3
Post-Glenn, Post-Bronchial Spams, Day 3
Not fun - post-Glenn, night 2
Post-Glenn, Day 2
Post-Glenn, Day 2 - morning
Post-Glenn, Day 1, part 2
Post-Glenn, Day 1
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In surgery - updates
the wait
The night before the Glenn
Preparing for the Glenn
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Milk Allergy Fun
Chatty Sammy
Cath Hospitalization
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Gasmonster!
Teaching Sammy about the world.
Miles for Miracles
First bath!
Gassy infant prodigy
Rockin' Sammy
Revelations about mamahood
Babymoon, Part 2
Babymoon, Part 1
Home Sweet Home
Discharged!
Rumor has it...
Stepdown, Day 2
We have step down!
Today was pretty mellow
No step-down for you
Time to buy stock in St. Joseph's
One step closer
Extubation!
One step at a time
Done with the closing
Chest Closing
Birth story
Chest Closing & Mama in Triage
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Out of Surgery
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Samson Arrives
Labor update
Of due dates and inductions
Baby Grace
Snow baby?
Welcome to the jungle
Getting closer...
37 1/2 week update
Fighting the bad thoughts
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31 weeks with Dr. Brown, CHB
31 Week Appt. w/ Dr. Johnson
One big monkey!
Starting to Get Ready
30 Weeks and Full-blown Panic
Silly Pregnant Lady
27 Week Visit
Fears
EFO Shout Out
Weird Pains & an Early Morning Trip to the Hospital
Fetal Echo at Boston Children's Hospital
DiGeorge's - Negative!
Evil Genetics Counselor
Full amnio results
22 weeks and Life Now
Pediatric Cardiologist
Redefining Normal
FISH Results
Embarrassing the poor boy already
The Baby's Name
Post-Amnio
Pre-amnio, Baby痴 name riddle
Reiki energy, and not being alone
Friends and Tarzan
Trying to get through the day
The diagnosis
Trying to stay positive
Pre-Diagnosis

posted by Mom on November 25, 2008

As many of you know, Sammy's been having a bit of trouble with his oxygen saturations lately. Oxygen saturation, commonly abbreviated as "sats", measures the percentage of hemoglobin binding sites in the bloodstream occupied by oxygen. (from wikipedia) Heart-healthy people are typically at 99-100. Sammy, right after the Fontan, was in the low 70s. The lower the sats, the bluer a person will look and the amount of oxygen circulating throughout the body (and to the organs) will be lower.

During the Fontan, they created a fenestration (a hole) to help his body handle the change in pressures with his new circulation. His fenestration was "generous" and we knew that his sats would remain on the low side until they closed the fenestration by cath in a year or two. His cardiologist was fine with this, and we all expected his sats to increase over the months following the Fontan. And they did - Sammy was up in the 80s for a while this summer. We knew, too, that the more active he was, the more mixing of blood across the fenestration there would be, and the bluer he would turn until he calmed down and rested. Again, no one seemed concerned about that, so even though I think it unsettled us both a bit, we trust his cardiologist very much.

Over the past few weeks, Sammy has had a couple of episodes where he turned very blue. (Think blue-raspberry lollipop mouth and purple fingers.) We put him on the sat monitor, only to find out that he had dropped into the 50s. Since he remained (incredibly) active through it, his cardiologist didn't think it was an immediate need to have him seen. What is more concerning to them, however, is not those blue "episodes" so much as it is that his overall sat levels have decreased over the past few months. Where he was in the 80s over the summer, he is now back into the low to mid 70s - not ideal. And that they decreased instead of increased (and settled out) means a fun ol' trip into Boston for us. Since there shouldn't be much fluctuation post-Fontan, and since he's remained very active, they don't believe it's anything cardiac. The job now is to figure out what, if anything, it is.

Today, Sammy is scheduled for an EKG, xray and echo. Please keep him in your thoughts. We're hoping that it's just Sammy and these shifts in saturations will be fixed once he has a cath to close the fenestration. But please pray that if there is a problem, it is easily detected and easily remedied. Thanks so much.

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PLEASE contact us if you want to talk. Having others who have been through this there for us (even when we just needed to freak out!) has been so, so instrumental in coming to terms with what's we're up against.

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