Oliver Annandale: 4 and a half weeks after leaving home...

It is now already 4 and a half weeks ago that we left home and luckily the first three really stressful weeks are over and our life is slowly getting back to normal…Ollie is doing really well and we are now busy keeping him from jumping off jungle gyms and climbing trees! Before leaving England last week to spend some time with family in Germany, we visited friends (thank you Claire and Neill and Bonnie and Johann for having us!), explored a proper English castle, went on a boat trip and had a couple of nice English beers. Making sure that the kids and we remembered something else but the hospital in Birmingham.

Henry has said it before but I also want to say thank you for all the support that we got: from all our family (especially Rita and John as well as Waltraut and Ruediger), friends, colleagues, even people we have never met. It really means a lot to us! I also want to thank Jaco and especially Henry for updating everyone through the blog and taking care of the writing and posting.

We are really amazed how well Ollie recovered and how quickly he was back to his normal self after such a major surgery. That was mainly due to the professional and compassionate care from all the hospital staff we met: doctors, sisters, nursing students, physiotherapists and support staff. Everyone was friendly, patient, knowledgeable and really caring. From greeting us by name to excellent support and care to helping us look for a lost soft toy fox... We can only say that the Birmingham Children’s Hospital made a very difficult experience as comfortable as possible for us.

The final/ follow up cardiologist visit a week after hospital discharge confirmed that Ollie's O2 levels have come up to 90-91% and that the Glenn shunt is working well. We already knew that the mitral valve leak after the valve repair is still moderate and that a complete repair was not possible because of the size of the structures. The only new thing we heard was that the valve repair made the ventricular septum defect (VSD) smaller which is now causing turbulences through the VSD which were not there before. This is not a concern at this stage but we need to keep an eye on it as Ollie grows...

For now, we are just glad that our small super hero is doing so well. We love you lots and lots and lots Ollie!