Looking a little blue...

Gracelyn has done so well since she was born. Anytime anyone has asked how she is doing we have had nothing but positive to say. It has been a huge blessing to have had things go as smoothly as they have. As expected, thing have changed, and quickly. Gracelyn has been looking really blue the last week. Since her surgery the cyanosis (blueness) has come and gone, but recently we've noticed that it isn't going away. Sunday I thought that we had better check her O2 saturation. She was in the high 60's low 70's. On Monday she had an appointment scheduled with her pediatrician so we waited to do anything and thought we could just let him look at her. She had an appointment scheduled with her cardiologist on the 29th, but her pediatrician didn't think that was soon enough. I called Primary's and they got her in on Tuesday. First they took her in for x-rays. Everything looked great there. Then they took her sats and did and EKG. She stayed around 75% on her oxygen and the EKG was okay. Next they decided to do and echo. They didn't want to sedate her and so they were only going to try to do a partial echo with her awake. She was such a great baby, she ended up falling asleep and they were able to do the full test. Dr. Pinto, her cardiologist wasn't too happy with her O2 saturation. When we saw her four weeks ago she was in the 80's and she thought surgery wasn't in the near future. After all of her testing Dr. Pinto came to talk with my mom and I. She told us that something needed to be done soon. She put her back on oxygen and wants to meet with a team of doctors to discuss what should be done. She wants to try to do a cath on her again and see if her stent (the wire metal mesh piece in her heart) could be opened and allow for more flow. The cath is her first choice and she would schedule that for sometime in the next week. If not she will need to have her next surgery, the Glen shunt, soon. Jeff and I knew that it was coming, we just didn't think it would be so soon. We will be hearing back from the doctors soon and will update then. Gracelyn is struggling a bit. She seems miserable. She HATES the oxygen being in and has almost stopped smiling and talking completely. Mr. C isn't so great either. When he walked in and saw her on the oxygen he got upset. He walked over to her, put his head up to hers and said, "I thought she was better mom?" He keeps asking us why she needs to wear the oxygen and doesn't understand why she is "sick again". I wish I could give him the answers he wants to hear. He loves his sister so much and just wants her to be okay. Again, we ask for prayers. We ask for prayers that the doctors will make the right decision as they are figuring out what needs to be done and we ask for prayers that she may stay healthy until a decision is made. We are grateful to those that care so about Gracelyn, even though most have never met her. I am always overwhelmed by those that are following her story and so concerned about her.

A little bit of happy news: We were excited to get Gracelyn out of the house today. The weather is beautiful. Jeff was in town and so we found a restaurant with outside seating and met up with him and my parents for lunch. Later we were able to go for a walk with our cousins. It was so nice to have her out of the house!