2 year biopsy

We celebrated Laura’s two year heart anniversary this past January and were given a date for her annual biopsy/angiogram in early February. The protocol at our transplant center (Edmonton) is for the kids to have annual biopsies and angiograms each year for the first 3 years post-transplant. This is due to the increased risk of rejection in those first years. After the three year period is over, biopsies are moved to an “as needed” procedure and angiograms are changed from annual to bi-annual tests.

Despite our best efforts, in February, shortly before Laura’s scheduled Biospy/Angio, she came down with a seemingly harmless cold. Along with that cold, however, she developed a nasty cough that would not go away. She was unable to clear all the fluid buildup from her lungs and Pneumonia soon followed – Laura’s second bought of pneumonia in just over 6 months. Thankfully, the amoxicillin that she received did the job and she came out on the other side in just over a week. Because of the pneumonia, we had to cancel her procedure.

Two weeks before her now rescheduled biopsy she came down with yet another cold… This time the cough was not too bad and we remained hopeful that she would be healthy for her procedure.

This time, there was no pneumonia! She did, however, have strep…

Cue the amoxicillin and biopsy cancellation for the second time in 2019.

The amoxicillin got to work and we began looking for a new date for her biopsy. We scheduled it for April and this time we avoided everything for the weeks leading to the biopsy and took extra precautions (hand washing like mad people, avoiding church for a few weeks, keeping her away from the grocery store, and even avoiding the park – keeping to our own backyard) to keep her healthy.