D-Day!!!

As I sit down to write, my two "babies" are upstairs sleeping in their own beds. My Hubby is on the couch watching his fish and drinking a coffee. Who even knows what our two mischievous cats are up to. I probably don't even want to know.
And me? I'm drinking a coffee...and drinking in the silence of it all.

Well, other than that beeping that I can still hear in my head...

We arrived home at 1:30pm. Exactly one week ago at 1:30pm, Rob had just brought Abbi into the OR, laid her on the table, and left her in the surgeon's hands. What a difference a day, or a week for that matter, makes! Hard to believe something that we dreaded for so long is finally behind us (in a sense).

"First thing in the morning" around the hospital seems to be a relative term. We didn't actually leave the hospital until 1:00pm. We were released by about 9:30am, and then we needed to have our Warafin training. That took 1.5 hours. Then we needed to get our prescriptions filled which took another 45 minutes. I mean it seemed like it would never end.

During our training, Gammy took Abbi to The Beach play area. Our training was fairly involved, and although it was a lot of information, it seemed to make more sense once you actually got into the swing of it. Basically the fenestration they put in during the surgery has a high clot factor (its likely about 2mm long). The body naturally wants to create a clot there, so they give blood thinners to prevent that. So once they decide what they are going to do with the fenestration, that will determine how long she is on this drug. Some kids can be on it for years, whereas for other kids its only months.

So we got a portable monitor on loan from the thrombosis clinic (that little number would cost $600 to buy it on your own). Similar to that a diabetic would use. You also get a little pen-looking thing that you load little lancets into. Basically needle like things. Its spring loaded so you click it and then at a push of a button, the needle pokes out, and you poke the side of your finger. Then you need to get a droplet of blood, which you then you drop onto one of the test strips that is sitting in the monitor. Your blood flows up this little pathway. The monitor determines how long it takes your blood to clot. That number is what they will base her doses of Warafin on.

The average person's number (not entirely sure what the number means, perhaps seconds it takes a persons blood to start forming a clot?) is 0.9 to 1.2. Both Rob and I were 1.0. Gammy was 0.9. When we did Abbi she was 1.5. The ideal range for Abbi is going to be 2.0 to 3.0. So until Abbi is in that range, we will have to test her blood a little more frequently to determine how close we are. Thankfully its not going to be a daily poke. It will start out a few times a week, but eventually could become a few times monthly. We will e-mail our number to the thrombosis clinic and they will e-mail back with her Warafin dosage for that day, and the next time we need to re-test.

We also got the list of medications that Abbi needs once we leave the hospital. Three of the items on the list were part of the Warafin stuff (The lancets, the test strips, and the Warafin itself. Shockingly enough, the test strips cost $180 for 24 of them. Ouch! Thank goodness for medical coverage!). It was pretty overwhelming seeing all of these things that your seemingly healthy child one week ago now needs.

You could tell Abbi was fairly exhausted by lunch time. She was just glum. She had a good time at The Beach for a while, but you could see that she was just done. Once we were done with our training, they were having a pizza party at The Beach. It was fairly funny to see this giant line up. People coming from all over the hospital for free food! We got some pizza, although Abbi really had no interest. Then we had to go downstairs and wait for our prescriptions. Hurry up and wait!

What did we stumble upon when we came downstairs? The CTV Edmonton evening newscast taking place, or at least part of it. So we saw Daryl McIntyre and Carrie Doll. These people are legends in our household as we watch the news most evenings. So being the geeky awe-struck fan I took some pictures of them.
Then we were saying how funny it was that Josh, who is the evening news' weatherman, was Abbi's first word. We would always say "There's Josh." Abbi picked up on that, and everytime the news came on, "Josh, Josh, Josh." We were sitting on a bench in the atrium and who comes and sits on the opposing bench? You got it...Josh Classen! The legend himself!

So Rob leans over and says "Hey Josh," like as if we've known him for years. He was like "Hey" and then went back to texting on his phone. I'm sure he gets this all the time. And then Rob told him the story of Abbi's first word. He thought it was just hilarious. We told him that she was just being released from the hospital, and he thought that was pretty cool. I told her it was Josh from the TV. And even though she was grumpy you could see this light go on inside her head. We ended up getting her picture with him. She looks miserable as anything, but it was still pretty cute.
We also met Atticus. I had heard of him through a heart friend in Calgary. He went through the three operations (he has HLHS), but the Fontan never worked for him. He never left PICU afterward. He had his Fontan in November, and finally got a transplant in January. They didn't go home until Easter. Unbelievable! So now he is one the Stollery spokes-kids. He is often in their commercials or being interviewed. He is a bit of a legend around those parts. So he also came and sat on the bench beside Josh, and I knew who he was right away. I was able to meet his Mom, and Abbi got to meet him as well. When is Mom said, "She had her heart fixed just like you did" you kind of saw this glimmer in both of them like, "Ohh." It was really neat to meet them, and his Mom thought a play date would be good. And also funny because she was just shocked that we were going home after only 7 days! She kept on saying, "7 days, wow!" 7 days is nothing compared to 6 months.

Atticus, Josh & Atticus' Mom, Kerri

The Nepper's on their way home in front of the Stollery Sign

Abbi is currently having a good nap. You can tell she is just wiped. I think we all are. I can't even begin to describe how I feel. I just want to sleep and cry. Its almost like I haven't allowed myself to be emotional for a week. Mainly because in the moment you just have to do whatever it takes. So I'm finding myself fairly emotional looking back on the past week and what we went through. Even more overwhelming to think about what Abbi's gone through.

So I kind of see it as a journey, and a team effort. I can't say that we are "done" but we are definitely (hopefully) done the harder stuff. So I wanted to thank all of you who came alongside of us during this part of the journey. I think I've come to appreciate that although people may not always do things the same way, we all have the same goal in mind, and just sometimes have different ideas of how to get there.

We want to say Thank You to...
The well wishers
Those who prayed
Those who baked
Those who made meals
The visitors
The doctors, nurses, surgeons, and the entire medical team
Those who sent encouraging e-mails, cards, & notes
The gift givers
The Gammy's (You were an invaluable part of our Team. Couldn't imagine doing it without you!)
The Grandma's (We couldn't have done it without you. Gabe & Abbi would agree!)

And ultimately to God. We saw His hand throughout our experience, and we give him the glory! She was always in His hand, and we believe He directed the hands of those who cared for her. Amen!