10 minute procedure+3 hours behind schedule+adding an echo+sats dropping to the 60's=staying overnight at PCMC

It is 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and we are still at Primary's. Blah! If this is a precursor to what our next surgery stay will be like then...

Sorry, I shouldn't be typing right now. My attitude isn't the greatest. Lack of sleep, no answers and a child that is turning blue with 13 days to go until surgery will do that. I need my sleep. Jeff and I both probably got a good two hours sleep last night. We miss Mr. C. It is just a difficult time right now. That is the reality of it. Consider yourself warned for the next few weeks. Happier times to come soon. :) (Mr. C could give you a happy story. He got a sleepover. Grandpa and Grandma to the rescue, again. )

We arrived at the hospital just before 1P.M. yesterday. We went through pre-op and they told us it would be just a few minutes until they took us back. A minute later they came back and said they were running three hours behind. We decided to take her to cardiology and get that over with. They looked at her and she was great. Heart sounded good. EKG was good. She was sating at 76%. Nothing needed attention before her surgery. Dr. Pinto told us to just try and keep her healthy and above 70% for the next two weeks.

At 4:00 p.m., still nothing. Gracelyn was a complete angel. She hadn't eaten since 10:30a.m. and just laid calm in her daddy's arms (if I held her she would get frustrated trying to eat) she eventually fell asleep in his arms.

Finally they got us back to have her tubes put in. They said normally it would about 45 minutes before we could leave to go home, but the cardiologist ordered an echo since she was already sedated and that would add about an hour. Because of the echo they would also be doing and IV and breathing tube. After an hour they came to get us. She did great! The doctor came out to talk with us and said that it was the right decision and that she should be feeling better soon. They took us back to find her in post-op. She was already on her second bottle of pedialyte. They told us that they were going to watch her for about a half hour. She did fine for a while, but they couldn't keep her oxygen up. They kept a close eye on her. Our nurse was AMAZING! Her shift had been over for a long time, but she was so concerned with Gracelyn she wouldn't leave. Jeff and I hadn't eaten so they went and got us some of the food that they give the kids coming out of surgery. We got Sprite, ice cream, Mac and Cheese and crustable PB & J sandwiches. :) Around 9:30 p.m they decided that she needed to stay overnight to be monitored. She continued to do poorly. At 1:30 a.m. the attending doctor ordered an x-ray. Nothing there. There weren't any changes from her x-ray a month and a half ago. Finally around 5:30 a.m. she fell asleep. While she was asleep we saw oxygen anywhere from 70-75%. We were happy with that. When she is awake she stays around 65%. Not so great...

SO, she still isn't doing great, but there is nothing we can do. There is nothing, except surgery, that can help her. We have to continue to monitor her frequently and keep her healthy for 13 more days. I think that this is what it took for me to be willing to hand her over to the doctors for heart surgery. At this point, I just want her to have the surgery and be fixed. We hope to be home soon, sleeping in our own bed.