Cath day in review

First of all let me apologize for my delay in posting about Gracie's cath---Friday was quite the day, we left the apartment at 6:30am and didn't get home till 9pm.

On our way up to Primary's we got stuck on the interstate, there was a jackknife semi that made traffic literally be at a standstill. It took us an hour just to get from Thanksgiving Point to the point of the mountain! Needless to say we were an hour late to registration, causing us to be rushed through the whole check-in process---before we knew it we were walking Gracie down to the Cath Lab and saying goodbye. Oh, how hard it was, but luckily the nurses in the lab remembered us and we remembered them, so I was at ease knowing Grace was in good hands.

The whole procedure took about three hours and Gracie did great. She did lose more blood than anticipated, requiring another blood transfusion, but we are use to those---she's seriously had at least 50. The other major complication was that Dr. Day tried to go up her left groin, but met resistance so had to go up the right groin--meaning she would be extremely sore on both sides, poor baby.

We met with Dr. Day and went over the pictures from the cath, things looked ok, not great. Her right mammary gland is still enlarged and pushing on the sano, but not so much that it is blocking blood flow. Gracie's heart's squeeze isn't as strong as they would like, but apparently it never has been---something I've never been told before. But the major information that they found was the strong possibility of a blood clot in between the two stints in her sano. If the clot continues to grow, Grace's blood flow and thus oxygenation could seriously suffer. At this point they aren't even concerned if it were to break off, Dr. Day said that it would actually be better off if it was in her lungs than in her sano----don't ask me to explain why because frankly it puzzled me.

We went up to PACU and Dr. Jou her cardiologist was already there assessing Grace. Once he found out about her blood clot her, he left and literally returned within 5 minutes with a date for Gracie's Glenn (the 2nd open heart surgery she will need)!!! He had said we needed to get it done sooner than later, so she is now scheduled for February 4th. Talk about being hit by a truck! That is just three weeks away! It makes me sick just thinking about it, how am I going to be able to hand my baby over to them after all we been through? Will she come out of this ok? Will I be able to handle another round?

Being home for three months we have been able to put Gracie's delicate heart out of our minds, sort of, and focus on her and now we are forced back to reality and facing more high risk surgeries and possible set backs. But we know that this is what is best for our sweet girl. She has proven that she is a fighter and she is not ready to call it quits. I know that through the skilled hands of the surgeons, faith, and Heavenly Father's help and blessings she will overcome and be even stronger.

We came home that night---the hospital was just going to manager her pain with Tylenol and Motrin so we decided to take Gracie home since she was doing ok. The next day she was miserable, she still isn't eating orally like she was before the cath, but it will come. And just as she started feeling better and more like herself, I had to take her in today for ear tubes, an AVR (hearing test) and a sedated echo. But more on that later.