A long day, a rough night, but...

we're finally home!

I don't even know where to start...it's been such an emotionally draining week waiting for this procedure to happen and then be over with!

We were at the hospital for 10.5 hrs yesterday - the procedure was about 1.5 hrs ... most of the time was spent waiting for her to wake up from the medicine.

After we did all the preliminary paperwork etc we gave her some medicine (don't remember the name) but it basically was to make her sleepy ... or "drunk" in the nurse's words! And boy was my poor baby "drunk"! You could see it happening to her as her movements slowed down and she had less control. Then she would look up at me or Joe and say in this drunken sounding voice, "hi daddy..hi mommy" - it's really hard to explain in writing how this sounded, but it had us laughing each time she said this. When someone new would walk into our little cubby hole area she would slowly raise her hand and say "hi" with that drunken sound again.

She was finally out cold while they did the echo to check on the PDA again, then as soon as Joe laid her down on the bed she started stirring, trying to sit up, fighting the drugs ... and this was the part where they needed to put the IV in...she needed to be still. Oh yeah, she also had the emla cream on each hand and each leg so she was pretty numbed up there. They got the IV started, her hand all wrapped up and then got a dose of versed to put her out again.

I was doing pretty good not crying until the doctor performing the procedure had to give us the obligatory risk factors and of course had to mention the "d" word...which no parent wants to hear - no matter how low of a risk it is. Tears immediately pooled in my eyes but I tried not to think of that. This doctor was one of 4 who actually developed this procedure 20+ years ago, so that made me feel better.

We were able to walk her into the cath lab room where they were going to do the procedure. I carried her in there and as soon as I handed her over to the nurse I just lost it. It's so hard to hand your baby over and walk out of the room, no matter what is being done to them.

I have no idea what dosage levels mean but I heard they had to give her a little more than they expected to for someone her size/age. They started with 3 milligrams of versed, but she would still keep trying to stir and move her arms around and they ended up giving her a total of 5, so she was pretty doped up and knocked out. I told them it would be hard to keep her down! My little fighter!

We finally got to be with her in the recovery room where she slept off and on. Every time she was awake she would want to move her leg (it wasn't restrained so she could do this) but when she did, someone, (dad, nurse, grandma, mom) would straighten it out and hold it still..which in turn would make her mad and cry more. She would finally give up after a few minutes and go back to sleep. Repeat when she woke up again.

She was drinking a little bit of apple juice and water and keeping it down (the second time) so they finally let us go.

She was fine as we left the hospital and drove back to the hotel. When we got to our hallway Joe mentioned putting her down and letting her walk a little bit, so I did. As soon as she tried to take one step she collapsed...poor thing! She still had the effects of the drugs, hadn't been on her feet all day, had nothing to eat, probably numb in that area and was just not coordinated enough to walk yet. But she got mad when I picked her up to carry her the rest of the way and kept saying "walk." We got in the room where I deposited her on the bed. After much rolling around, fussing etc she fell asleep about 20 min later and slept solid for 2 hrs. Which of course meant she wasn't going to be ready for bed when we were! She woke up and devoured 3 sopapillas!

She kept trying to get up and walk around but she was so unsteady on her feet. It was making her mad that she couldn't just walk. I kept keeping my arms near her to try and help steady her, but she didn't like that either and that pissed her off! She was very irritable to say the least!

I finally laid down with her in the sofa bed at 10 and went to my bed at 1030. I just couldn't take it anymore! She didn't try to get out of bed, but she wasn't quite ready to go to sleep either...kept rolling everywhere etc. She was very restless and I kept getting smacked in the face, or kicked, or pushed. Then around 1230 she was up calling for me so I laid down with her for another 45 minutes...same restlessness from her again. Joe came to the bed and she snuggled up with him and immediately stopped crying..within 1o minutes she was out. Yeah my feelings were hurt! Little stinker. Then she slept good until about 6 am.

The hard part this morning was having to take off her pressure bandage which was pretty much super glued to her skin. They gave us these special wipes to help dissolve the glue and take it off, but it was still hard to do and she looked red and raw in that area when Joe was done.

So after all that - the procedure was a success, the coil was placed and stayed and the hole is closed. However, she does have a very "insignificant" mitral regurgitation (leakage) which means she will still need to take a dose of antibiotic anytime she has surgery/dental work.

Whew! Didn't realize I had so much to write...sorry for the long post!

If you made it this far...I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who thought of us and sent their prayers. It really meant a lot to know so many people were praying for Kayla's procedure to be successful.

Thank you.