PAC Over and Done

Whew, well, speaking for myself, I am absolutely exhausted today. I suppose yesterday I was up at 5:20am (compared to my normal 8:00am!), and didn't go to bed until 10:30pm (Thanks to American Idol - its getting good!). It was a long one! Abbi seems to be her usual self today.

I'll go back a day and show some pictures from our Build-A-Bear experience. We went on Monday night. The idea was that Abbi would get a special teddy bear, that has a "special heart" inside just like Abbi. That way she could take it with her to the hospital. But I think the end, as much as she loves her new friend, its just another teddy bear. Of course its one that she got to pick out herself, but perhaps the whole heart thing may have been lost on a two year old! Oh well, it was still pretty neat, and I'm glad we did it.

The Build-A-Bear store front in WEM.

Abbi picking our her special friend. The first one she grabbed was a High School Musical Teddy Bear. Hmm. Thankfully this horse caught her eye.

Horsie getting stuffed. Pretty cool. They put a little fabric heart in each bear, but we paid the $6.50 and got a heart that has a real heart beat. It really does sound, and feel, like a real heart.

Watching all the fluff spin around. Abbi thought this was pretty cool.

Then you can give your special teddy a "bath." Air comes out and you get little brushes to clean them up. Abbi also liked this part.

This is Rob and Abbi on the computers. Well, Rob on the computer. You can information about where you live. The animals name. We asked Abbi its named and she said Brown. So from that, we decifered (well, more like decided), to call him Brownie. They put a little bar code inside the horse so if it ever gets lost, they can track it back to you - very cool! So we printed up Brownie's birth certificate.

Abbi's not letting go of Brownie for anything...

Gabe the babe partaking in all the fun.

Then the next morning, we were out of the house by 6:40am. We arrived at the PAC, and the first thing we needed to do was to weigh and measure Abbi.

Let the screaming begin...

All I could think was "If she's going to scream like that for something as simple as this, what are we in for?" Then we got to our room and they started with blood pressure. She can't stand blood pressure. So again, much screaming, restraining, and I had to put my hand over her mouth because she was being so loud. And all the blood pressures were totally not accurate. Oy!

Then Ruth and Rob (he had to park the car) arrived and they seemed to really help things. Ruth sat in front of Abbi and started counting. Using her hands and counting different animals (I have 2 cows, 3 puppies, etc). That really seemed to help Abbi to focus on something else. I mean, don't get me wrong, there was still crying and screaming throughout our day, but it was much reduced. It was much more effective than my mouth covering!

Then we had speak to so many different people. I can't really remember the exact order. But we spoke with the surgeon's resident (So like Grey's Anatomy!). Then the surgeon came in, Dr. Rebeyka, and spoke to us. He is the pediatric surgeon spokesperson for the Stollery. He is often on the news, and a bit of a legend in Edmonton. A very suave man, and was wearing excellent pinstripe pants (which both Ruth and I noted). He started explaining what he was going to do, and what he had done in the past. So I will move this here, and bla, bla. And we are all nodding, yup, yup. As if we really have any clue what he is talking about. He thought Abbi's scar has healed very well, and said it should be about the same size after this surgery. He said it would be about 8-10 days in the hospital. He said it should take around 3 hours, as this one will be more involved that her last surgery. He felt because she has done so well in the past, it should go as planned for her.

Kind of an aside, but after he left, I was thinking about how strange it is that he has been inside our daughter's chest. Well, actually many childrens chests. Before he came in he was talking to the family in the room beside us. Their little guy looked to be about the same age as Gabe, and we figured out (by eavesdropping, of course) that this will be his third surgery. Wow. Dr. Rebeyka was saying that last time he did this, this and this, but he needs to go in an fix this. He found it odd that he needs to go back a third time. So it occurred to me, how odd that you have to go back and fix something inside a person's body. Like Rob as a carpenter, if he builds a house wrong, he'll have to go correct something if it collapses or fails (knock on wood). But weirder as a surgeon to have to go back inside someone to "fix" your previous job. Weird...

Then we had a social worker come in. She just asked us about how we will be coping with the upcoming surgery, things like finances, parking, where to stay, etc. Just kind of letting us know that there are resources out there if we need them. I think its definitely different for us because we are from Edmonton. But I can't imagine coming in from another province. Not only the stress of that, but also the financial aspect. She was really great, and as a fellow social worker, she got two thumbs up from me! She was also highly gorgeous, and seriously could be Demi Moore's younger better looking twin!

We also had a physio come in. We were kind of like, "why do we need to speak to physio?" I guess its mainly to know how to pick Abbi up after the surgery. Same as after the procedure when she was 5 months old. They will also encourage Abbi to get up and walking after the operation. This will keep fluid from collecting around her heart and lungs, and get her on the road to recovery.

We also had a child life therapist come in. She helps kids understand what they might see, experience, and feel while in hospital. She was great with Abbi. We were really impressed. She has this little goodie bag that has various hospital things in it and lets Abbi explore them Although I don't think it entirely prepared Abbi for any of it, I think it just kind of gets her more used to the idea. She also works in The Beach, which is a giant play area outside of the cardiology ward. Its in the atrium, so very bright and sunny. Abbi will get to play there, which I think will be a great distraction for her.

Trying on a scrub cap. She thought this was a pretty funny hat.

A picture while waiting in the PAC room. Lots of waiting. Gammy kept Abbi quite entertained.

Then we were off to x-ray. I dread this procedure with a passion. If you have seen a infant get an x-ray, you know what I am talking about. Its this dreadful seat thing, with a white tube that clicks around their torso. Their arms are shooting up in the air, and it looks so uncomfortable. So due to that fact, Rob took Abbi in. Shes now old enough to not need the freaky seat! Rob sits with her, and wears the lead vest, and holds her. So much simpler! And so much less traumatic for everyone. Whew.

Then we were up to Cardiology for Abbi's sedated echo. This is waiting in our room in cardiology. Gammy and Abbi singing.

This was my main concern of the day, how will they get her do drink the stuff? Chorol hydrate. Judging by the way she reacted last time, its pretty dreadful tasting. Incredibly enough, our nurse was Brandi! She was our home care nurse after Abbi's was born. She came out weekly to check on Abbi, weigh her, check on me, etc. She was such an important part of our lives for 5 months. She moved on from home care to the cardiology ward about a year ago. We were so glad to have her as our nurse. Although Abbi doesn't remember her, I do, and I think that makes me so much more comfortable with her. She listened to our concerns, and really took them to heart.

Although the sedative didn't work for Abbi's last echo, it was decided to try it again anyway. So Brandi got me to hold her still, and she took a syringe, and got to it! She plugged Abbi's nose, which forces her to swallow. We were all impressed with how forceful she was. Sounds awful, but I think you just have to get it done, and that's exactly what Brandi did. Abbi actually seemed to react better to that, rather than the last time with two people holding her down and forcing her to gag it down (honestly, it was one of the worst things I have seen). So she took all 10mL of the stuff in less than a minute. Brandi gets it done! That's the max dosage that can be given, so if it doesn't work, no more can be given.

Then the lights are turned down, and we wait. We wait for Abbi to go to sleep. I said to Ruth, its like Abbi was saying, "What? That's it? That's all you got?" That little girl didn't fall asleep. I mean she definitely mellowed out, but there was no sleeping! Which of course quite impressed everyone. People were peeking in, "Nice sedative!" So she got set up in the echo room, Dora the Explorer was put on the TV (it hangs above the bed, its brilliant), and off they went. It was 1.25 hours. She did great. Laid very still. She actually fell asleep just at the end. I think more from tiredness than anything. So Brandi was able to get 4 limb blood pressures as well as an ECG done. And that's what I love about Brandi. She listened to us that Abbi's hates getting her BP done, and waited until a time that she could do it without disturbing her. Now that's care!

After Abbi's slight monitoring afterwards, we were back downstairs to PAC. They gave us our requisition, and we were off to the lab for bloodwork. Again, Rob's department. I do it quite often on my own with the kids (immunizations, blood work), but really, Rob does way better with it than I do. She got to sit on Rob's lap (rather than being restrained on a table, again, so much better). The tech was fast, and got it done. Nice. Once it was a 45 minute ordeal with numerous pokes on almost every limb to get blood. Again, horrible, horrible.

Then we were able to go home. Phew! It was 7.5 hours later when we finally arrived home. Hence the exhaustion. The one thing I forgot about the chorol hydrate was the after affects. Its a sedative, but also a hynoptic drug. Almost like the child is drunk. So we got her home, and couldn't let her walk anywhere on her own. She was staggering all over the house. That lasted probably until 8:00pm. Even then she was still a little wobbly.

It was such an intense day, and its so hard to imagine 8-10 more days of something similar. Getting through the PAC seemed like such a big thing, but then you realize this is only part of the picture. That was one hurdle, but that wasn't "the hurdle." So I think I just need to think of it as a race, and although we don't know how many hurdles there will be, there eventually will be a finish line, of sorts.

So nine days to go (unless we get called in earlier). We call in after 1:30pm on the day before (May 13th) to get our time, and we are hoping we are first case of the day. Anything after first case can be severely delayed (just because of complications or delays in the surgery prior). So in the meantime we do what we can do to prepare. I've started making some large meals, and freezing half. Tying up loose ends. I'm sure it will fly by.

Thank you all for your prayers yesterday, and in the days to come. I know I was very hesitant about yesterday, but for me, it went really well. I felt a lot more peace about things, and I felt very supported. So thank you all for praying. I think often its easy to rely on our own strength in times like this, but I often need to be reminded that I can rely God's strength, and not just my own.