Heart Cath Today

Sigh - we made it!  We're pretty exhausted after a night with little sleep and a day filled with commotion.  But the news is good.  We are home!  I woke up for the 1 a.m. feeding today to look out onto a winter wonderland.  The snow was coming down so strong that I wondered if it perhaps would be a game changer.  But we braved the snow, cold, and bad road conditions and arrived fashionably late to Children's hospital at 6:30.  After checking in we met with nurses and doctors and Ada had her vitals taken.  All systems were go, so we passed off a crying baby to a nurse - a stranger - and shed a few tears.  That was the toughest part of the day.  But by 11 a.m. we were reunited with a sleeping baby, a wonderful feeling.

The heart cath went very well, we are told, and there were no major surprises in Ada's heart anatomy.  The pressures in her heart also are showing to be a good sign, and the doctor was able to definitively rule out the possibility that her body had produced little "runners" or extra veins that formed to try to make their way to the lungs in order to get oxygenated - those would need to have been closed off prior to the surgery.

After the cath was completed, the doctors did a sedated echocardiogram to again get an accurate picture of the heart and the size of the veins/arteries that they will be dealing with in a couple weeks.  Again, no major upsets there.

Ada has of course been more fussy than normal, but the up-side is that she has been eating like a champ today - already 15 oz. taken today by 5 pm, which is pretty stellar.  We were told to expect that the first 24 hours after coming down from the anesthesia are the hardest and most fussy.  I'd better get some rest before "nighttime" comes, just in case!

Your prayers and support are so appreciated.  So encouraging to know and feel that we are not alone in this. We'll keep you updated!