Day 2

Today was the first of the long days at the Clinic. We arrived around 10:45 so we were early to the 11:00 registration appointment, which ended up being more time we had to wait. They didn't call me back to work on the registration paper till about 11:30, which was when I was actually supposed to be headed up to check in for my heart cath. This ended up putting me about 20 minutes behind schedule.

Once we made it up to the cath lab, we had another 20 minute wait before they took me back for prep work. No one told us the prep work would take almost an hour and a half! It was a long period of checking blood pressure, putting in the IV and then waiting till they were actually ready for me. So even though I arrived at the hospital at 11:00, it was about 2:00 before they actually took me back for the more prep work.

Once back in the cath lab, there was another 45 minutes of prep work that had to take place. Waiting was the most nerve wracking thing, because I was stuck laying down watching what they were doing. They had a 5 foot table COVERED in tools, tubes and syringes. I really had every intention of tweeting during the procedure, but sadly the walls were lead because of the radiation and they would not send. I was rather disappointed. One of the nurses tried to take my cell phone away before she took me back to the cath lab and we told her my intentions of tweeting. She loved the idea and was just as disappointed as I was that it didn't work out.

The cath was relatively easy, especially considering I was sedated for the first half of the procedure. Towards the end of it I was starting to wake up and could feel them pushing the tubes in, which was definitely uncomfortable. Dr. K explained to me what they found during the procedure, but after talking to my family I realized he gave me the very condensed version. Apparently he realized I would remember much of talking with him... which is very true!

{this information comes from what he told my family}

The procedure went great and there weren't any big surprises. They were happy to find that all of the arteries are in the right place, which can be common in congenital patients. They also found that there is space between the chest wall and the heart, which is a great thing because it is possible for them to cut the heart when they cut open the chest if there isn't space there.

The main thing they discovered (which is somewhat of a surprise) is how much regurgitation {leaking} there is in the pulmonary valve. Echo and MRI's have given them a good idea of how much leakage there was, which they figured to be 36%. This was described as moderate leakage. However, in the process of the cath, after they put in the dye, they realized that there is much more leakage than they originally thought. We don't have a percentage, but Dr. K said that "on a scale of 1 -4, the leakage is a 4+." {Basically they put the dye in the left ventricle and it leaked back into the right ventricle, which definitely should not have happened!} Before this information, Dr. K thought that while I didn't necessarily need the surgery right now if it weren't for the possibility of pregnancy, he said that it is necessary now that we know how much leakage there is. We are certainly thankful that I had the cath done and that we found out this information.

We now have what will hopefully be a relaxing weekend. We're planning on visiting the house from the movie A Christmas Story {you'll shoot your eye out kid!} The boys may hit up the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame, while my mom and I visit the famous Ann Taylor Loft. I'll try to update tomorrow with some pictures!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

{One thing to be praying for is the opportunity for us to share our faith. The nurses and doctors are wonderful and very caring, yet I haven't picked up on any religious beliefs from them. We have a huge testimony of faith and a network of believers supporting us in this and while we're here for a surgery, we also want this to be so much more than that!}