What we've been waiting to hear ...

Tom and I brought Claira to the surgical admitting area around 11:00 am Tuesday ... and she caught everyone's attention! They checked her weight, measured her, listened to her heart and lungs, etc. They were out of gowns so we put her little pink t-shirt on that says "made you smile". The tech brought her a new little friend to keep her company during the procedure. Her Pappaw and Grandma came in and waited with us until the cath nurse came to bring us upstairs where we had to say good-bye at the door of the cath lab. She was so tired and I learned later that she fell immediately to sleep, so they didn't have to give her the oral meds to make her sleepy. We went downstairs to the cafeteria to eat and met Mimi there. As soon as we were done I was ready to go back up! It was expected to take 2 hours, but we were anxious and wanted to be as close to the lab as possible.

After an hour and a half Dr. Kimberling came out with a picture of her heart which showed the catheter inside. I wish I could explain more, but I'm still very confused as to what this picture shows ... only that it's Claira's heart and that a significant blood flow is sneaking through the holes. (I promise to learn more later ... this was all very overwhelming.) He said that a heart with minor to no effects from a hole has a 1 to 1 flow ratio between the heart and the hole. If a 2 to 1 flow ratio is present, surgery is required. Claira has a 3 to 1 ratio. If the ratio had been closer to 2 to 1 he would have considered waiting, but he feels that doing the surgery now is necessary. He also said that this would definitely be a cause of her poor feeding and that he probably wouldn't have felt that way at first either. The cardiology team will meet with the surgery team Friday at lunch and then we'll be contacted with the date and more info.

She was being watched very closely in recovery and then was to be taken directly to the Intensive Care Unit. Mimi and I stood at the waiting room door watching for her to come up the elevator. I was so anxious ... I felt like a little girl waiting for Santa Claus. After several minutes after they said she'd be ready a nurse came to get us ... she was already in the room ... she'd snuck in through another elevator! When Tom and I got into the room there were 4 nurses standing over her and the anesthesiologist was still there. Claira did great throughout the procedure, however they did keep us overnight in PICU because she became feverish twice. Her eyes were very puffy from the fluids they gave her through the IV. Her face also became bright pink, which worried me. One of the nurses and I felt it was a sort of reaction ... to what we don't know. I will definitely bring this up when I meet with an anesthesiologist again. They also had trouble finding a pulse in her foot for almost 8 hours after. The artery they use for the test is almost completely occluded and so they have to be sure the blood will again travel to her foot. She had little markings on her feet so that the nurses would know where to look for a pulse with a Doppler. It was really cool because the pulse in her foot made the same sound her little heart made while in the womb.

Other than having to keep her leg perfectly still for almost 10 hours, she recovered beautifully! She came home this morning and is just like nothing ever happened. We do have to watch the sight for bleeding but that's it!