Heart Cath Day

Bean had her heart cath on Friday. She and I loaded up shortly before 9:00am and hit the road. I was a little nervous about the 2-1/2 hour drive because Bean wasn't allowed to eat. (Driving a stick while trying to stealthily drink a Frappucino with your left hand is not easy. Just FYI.) Thankfully, she fell asleep about halfway there and slept all the way to the hospital.

We registered at 11:30 and headed up to pre-op. We got through all the initial stuff (height, weight, getting into a gown, etc.) quickly. Unfortunately, they were running behind in the OR so we ended up with almost three hours to kill. In an effort to keep Bean's mind off of the food she wasn't allowed to eat, we got creative.

We took selfies...

...circled the unit about 214 times in this cute little car...

...and got hand sanitizer out of every. single. dispenser. on the floor.

Miraculously, we survived the wait without either of us having a meltdown. Just before 2:00pm, I got to meet briefly with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. They were both super nice and very willing to answer questions. When it was time for Bean to go, the nurse wheeled her and lovie away in the little car. It went much more smoothly than I had imagined.

I had been told to expect the procedure to last 2-4 hours, but the doctor came out to meet with me after just over an hour. The results were very positive: Bean's left pulmonary artery is connected and most of it is a good size. There is a small area that is stenosed (constricted) and will have to be repaired during her surgery.

(On a nerdy side note, the doctor was able to show me video of the cath. He pulled up two views of Bean's pulmonary artery, and I got the watch the dye flowing up the cath and through her arteries. It was pretty incredible to see her little anatomy in action.)

Bean does have one defect that was not in her original medical records. It's a small duct attached to her aorta, called a PDA. From what I understand, this is a minor issue and will be easy to remove during her surgery on Tuesday. I will have more details about the surgery after pre-op tomorrow, but the doctors have talked to me about doing three things: removing her PDA, patching her VSD (a large hole between her left and right ventricles), and widening the opening to her left pulmonary artery.

I got to hold Bean for a few minutes in Recovery. She was already awake when I got there and pretty relaxed (probably thanks to the meds). She drank a little apple juice, and then we headed to the cardiac floor. Her she is, wrapped up in the adorable elephant blanket the nurse gave her.

By the time we got the floor, it was shortly after 5:00pm. The surgeon was hoping we'd be able to leave around 8:00pm. It was nice and quiet, and I got to hold Bean (and all her many wires). She drank tons of apple juice, nibbled on a grape popsicle, and then fell asleep in my arms for a long time.

Around 7:00pm, Bean's dinner arrived. She was not interested. She kept shaking her head and pushing the food away. The nurses said she needed to eat before we could go, so I continued to offer her food. She wanted nothing to do with it.

About five minutes later, Bean puked. This is probably TMI, but I think she puked about 7 gallons of apple juice dyed grape-popsicle purple. She was soaked. Her cute blanket was soaked. I was soaked. (Right about now I realized I shouldn't have left the overnight bag in the car.)

So much for going home at 8:00.

After Bean puked, her oxygen saturation levels started to get wonky. Her sats were at 74 when we checked in. They started dipping into the mid-60's. (For reference, normal saturation levels are 95-100. Bean's are usually in the 70's.) The nurse got worried and put her on oxygen for a bit.

From 8:00 - 10:00pm, we watched Bean's sats and tried to get her to eat a little so we could go home. She finally ate a little carton of ice cream and kept it down, but her sats kept dropping into the 60's. The doctor doing rounds said he wanted her sats between 75-85. Since she'd only been at 74 when we checked in, I felt he was being a little unrealistic.

Shortly after 10:00pm, the doctor finally came to see Bean. At this point her sats were in the low to mid-70's, so he decided she looked okay to go home. We went through the discharge process and headed to the car. We walked out of the hospital into a monsoon. Seriously. It was raining SO, SO hard.

The drive home could fill a whole other blog post. The short story is that we got home safely around 1:15am. Bean slept the whole way, while I tried to navigate the weather and ignore the fact that my underwear were still soaked in puke.

We are so thankful for the good news about Bean's heart. We head back to the hospital tomorrow afternoon for pre-op. Jeremy, Bean, and I will spend the night near the hospital, so we can head back Tuesday for surgery. I will post the details about the surgery as soon as I have them (probably tomorrow evening).

Thank you so much for your prayers, love, and support for Bean and our family. We appreciate it more than you know!