Strangely enough it started out as a dark and stormy morning. The weather forecast called for freezing rain and snow and it did not disappoint. Because of this Owen stayed with my sister, her kids, and my mom the night before so we didn't have to worry about waking him up early to brave the winter roads. We were to check in at 7:30 am at Primary Children's hospital for Claire's procedure which was to start at 9 am. Luckily we live close and the roads weren't too terrible so we made it safely. We checked in, did the pre-op routine and by 9:30 we were walking down with the anesthesiologist from pre-op to the cardiac cath lab. I was so relieved to see an old co-worker Mary as her nurse. I had worked with her years ago on the IV team and knew that she had worked in the cath lab in the past. It's amazing how different it is when you're the parent on the other side, putting your child's life in the hands of someone else... So knowing and trusting the capabilities of her caregivers was defiantly reassuring. As Mary took Claire from my arms she handed me a pager that would go off when they had finished up with Claire's PDA closure. They told us it would be about 2 hours. Two hours...
Two hours is a super long time when you know that your baby is under general anesthesia and that her heart is being repaired. So... Jake and I went to the hospital cafeteria (which was our first 'date' in over a month) and did some stress eating. After eating our second breakfast I went up by the NICU to use their pumping/breastfeeding room. Within 10 minutes after finishing pumping the pager went off. I expected to feel relieved but since it had only been just over an hour since leaving Claire I was more worried than relieved...why were they paging us so soon? Was everything ok or did something go terribly wrong?
This morning we are awaiting her discharge. We had known about the 'extra' holes in her heart, the ASD, VSD's and PDA while she was still in the NICU but hoped that they would close on their own as she grew. After a follow-up echo in September and a cardiology visit in early December Claire's doctor said that the murmur was still there and that since they hadn't closed on their own, it was time to get the PDA taken care of. Her PDA, (which is a hole present in all babies in utero that normally closes at birth) in addition to the ASD and VSD's were causing already oxygenated blood to go back to her lungs which increased her metabolism and made her body work much harder to compensate. There is thought (and hope) that closing off her PDA will allow her to put the calories she takes in towards growing rather than just functioning.
These 8 short months of Claire's life have been anything but dull, and I kinda expect things to continue that way.., no more dull moments in the Hickenlooper household...
We made it down to the cath lab pretty fast and Mary was at the door giving us a thumbs up. All was good. Her dr then showed is images of Claire's heart, the PDA and VSD's and the coil he had put in place to occlude the PDA. We saw Claire roll by all bundled up in blankets on a stretcher, oxygen mask up at her face. As they wheeled her to the PACU her dr told us that once she was awake we could see her in post-op. Whew... Our baby girl was ok.
This morning we are awaiting her discharge. We had known about the 'extra' holes in her heart, the ASD, VSD's and PDA while she was still in the NICU but hoped that they would close on their own as she grew. After a follow-up echo in September and a cardiology visit in early December Claire's doctor said that the murmur was still there and that since they hadn't closed on their own, it was time to get the PDA taken care of. Her PDA, (which is a hole present in all babies in utero that normally closes at birth) in addition to the ASD and VSD's were causing already oxygenated blood to go back to her lungs which increased her metabolism and made her body work much harder to compensate. There is thought (and hope) that closing off her PDA will allow her to put the calories she takes in towards growing rather than just functioning.
These 8 short months of Claire's life have been anything but dull, and I kinda expect things to continue that way.., no more dull moments in the Hickenlooper household...
