Surgery in our future?

I am not sure how many of you know that Josh has a heart "condition" called a subaortic membrane or discreet subaortic stenosis..  The short of this is he has a flap of skin growing across his aorta, which can restrict blood flow.  He was diagnosed in 2010 and we have been getting it checked yearly.  It was moderate and we were hopeful that it would stay that way forever with no significant changes.  But we were told and had read up on this and knew there was a strong possibility that this would/could worsen.

We got that news yesterday after Josh's 4th echocardiogram.  Dr. Fahey couldn't read it while we were at our visit so he said he would call us with the results.  When he did it was not what we wanted to hear. The good news is, we will do another Echocardiogram in 6 months, the bad news is, there is most certainly a surgery in Joshua's future.  Super bad news is, surgery for this is open heart - this means that in order to even get to his heart they have to go in through the rib cage and breast plate. So they will have to open the breast plate to get to his heart. They will also have to stop his heart during the surgery in order to operate and remove the membrane.  And lastly, the super, super bad news is that this membrane can grow back.

So now for the best case scenario- it was a bad Echo (the changes were significant) and we can put this off for a few years. The worst case scenario, after the next Echo in 6 months, we will be looking at surgery at Yale. I wouldn't put him in any other hands but with the rising cost of healthcare and co-pays and Yale is not in our Network, so money will most certainly be on our minds as well as Josh's health and any ramifications of having open heart surgery.

So that my friends, is the deal.  Now we wait (as we all know that is the hardest part-- the not knowing) , and my motto is always prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.  I can't be delusional and think rainbows and unicorns - I am a realist at heart and would rather prepare myself for what can happen and he happily surprised when its better than I expected.