I don't know why I was so worried, because her cath went really well today (Thank You God!). We arrived at 8am, checked in, then went up to the 2nd floor... registered with them, they took her vitals put her in the signature "sleepy tiger" peds hospital gown, and attempted to do a blood draw. I warned the nurses that her veins are weak (non-existant and bone dry), but they insisted on trying before sending her to the cath lab. They tried for 5-10 minutes to find a viable vein (while my poor baby screamed her head off...) to no avail. (I told u.. I said to them). Then it seemed like we just sat around for an hour waiting, waiting, waiting....
Finally hospital transport arrived and walked us over to the cath lab...where we waited, waited, waited. Then the anesthesiologist came in and talked to us... then finally Dr. Pophal came in and talked to us. Then they took my baby and said they'd page us on the Olive-Garden-type buzzer/vibrator/pager thingy when she comes out of the lab. They said it could take up to 4 hours. We waited in the waiting room.
About 2.5 hours later the pager/buzzer started beeping and buzzing. Both Todd and I jumped up and practically RAN out of the waiting room toward the cath lab... we even left our stuff in the room (with some very honest good samaritans who promised to keep an eye on it for us), just to rush over to see our baby. But there was no one around? No Dr, no baby, no nurses... what the...
Then finally here comes the Nurse Practitioner who says that she's still intubated and is coming off the vent slowly, but that Dr. Pophal will be in shortly to let us know how it went. We're both on pins and needles at this point. FINALLY in strides the handsome Dr. Pophal and he proudly tells the story of what he did, happily shows us pictures, and carefully, and reassuringly explains everything to us. Of course to me, I'm still thinking, "huh?"...maybe surgery, maybe another shunt..maybe full repair... collaterals, coil..arteries..leg might be gray, voice might sound different.. It was a lot of information all at once and too much to memorize.
Long story short...They were going to do the full repair in the next 2-4 weeks, but now, Dr. Cleveland might want to do another shunt surgery to allow one of her pulmonary arteries to grow since Dr. Pophal coiled off one of the collateral arteries which may have hindered the growth of another pulmonary artery. Confusing? yes. But I will know more info on Tuesday when Beth, Dr. Cleveland, Dr. Nigro, Dr. Pophal, and the other cardiologists meet.
In the meantime, My little Scarlett slumbers peacefully next to me in her hospital crib. She's doing great. She drank 4 oz of pedialyte earlier today and kept it all down. Then around 6pm, she ate 3 oz of milk (fortified, thickened, BM) and again at 7:30pm she had around 2 oz more with her 1/4 tablet of aspirin. Here are some pics of her I took today. Thank you for your continued prayers and well wishes. :)
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