On the Way Home

Audra did well in recovery and we are in our way back home. It is a weird feeling to be leaving and know we will be back here Monday. But everything looks good for Monday and we are looking forward to meeting with our surgeon, Dr. Bove.

We ran into the fellow who did our prenatal echos. It was great to see him and talk things over with him. It is always nice to see a familiar face who knows about your history.

Here is hoping for an uneventful rest of the week and weekend.

Cath Over

Audra's catheterization is done and everything looks good. She did well and things progressed quickly. There isn't anything that would prevent us from moving forward with her surgery on Monday. She is in recovery now and we are waiting to see her. We have to see how her recovery goes to find our if we get to go home or if we have to stay until surgery.

Cath

We are in our way to Audra's catheterization right now. All went well with her pre-op day yesterday.

Thanks for all the support! We appreciate it. Keep those positive thoughts and prayers coming :) We will update later today.

More Details

So today is not ending quite as we expected. The day started off with us all trying to get into a new routine. The morning was tough on me but our older daughter was still sleeping when I left for work and Audra was snuggling with our awesome nanny. I am sure it was tougher on me than them.

My husband took his lunch to come home for our appointment with our home care nurse. Audra's oxygen saturation levels were lower again. Our nurse called our cardiologist who then called me. She let me know that our surgeon wanted to schedule Audra's surgery for next week and the scheduling people would call. Got all that? Anyway, our cardiologist also wanted us to bring in Audra at noon on Tuesday. Okay, we can make it happen.

Then I get a call from our surgeon's assistant. She tells us that Dr. Bove wants our surgery on Monday! Just a week away. Even more of a shock is the fact that our pre-op day is tomorrow (I guess today since it is after midnight) and then she will have a catheterization on Wednesday. She should be able to come home both nights but there is a chance she might have to stay on Wednesday. The estimate for her hospital stay is a week after surgery. We are hoping and praying for this.

What a whirlwind! The good news is that my boss has been awesome about all of this. He told me today he had a nightmare that I quit and he doesn't want that to happen. So that is good news because he allows us a lot of flexibility and doesn't want me to worry about work issues while I am off - and boy there are a lot of issues.

Grandma and Grandpa are making their travel arrangements and we are do happy for that!

All of your thoughts and prayers are appreciated!!

New Dates

Audra is scheduled for surgery next Monday - June 18. She has pre-op TOMORROW! Her catheterization is Wednesday. Yes, today was my first day back and probably my last for a few weeks.

More details later...

No New Date... Yet

We talked to our cardiologist this evening. She hasn't heard back from our surgeon, Dr. Bove. She assured us that she will call us on Monday to update us. We are still looking at moving up the date.

Audra's oxygen saturation levels were okay with our home care nurse. Not as high as they have been but higher than they were at our cardio appointment on Wednesday. We will keep an eye on the levels and our home care nurse is now back to coming out twice a week and of course, have to keep our eyes on how blue she is looking.

I start back to work on Monday. It may not be for long but my 12 weeks are up. Fortunately, I will be able to take some more time off for the second surgery, whenever it may be. Not knowing is hard. We will update you all when we know more.

New Surgery Date?

Hold the presses - we may have to move up Audra's surgery date. There is no reason to be alarmed but Audra's oxygen saturation levels are trending lower, so our cardiologist did an echo on her. She was supposed to be able to get away without one today. But alas we needed to take a look inside. Since she is a big baby, as noted in our post yesterday, she is outgrowing her shunt that was put in during her first surgery. This happens eventually to all HLHS babies, some sooner than others.

Based on her numbers and her echo, our cardiologist doesn't think that our surgery date will stay August 8. She estimated that we may have surgery in 2-4 weeks but it all depends on our surgeon, Dr. Bove. We will have an extra appointment with our home care nurse tomorrow and then we will talk with our cardiologist on Friday once she has spoken to Dr. Bove.

So we should know on Friday if we are going to move the surgery and when we might move it to. This is obviously a big change, so we will see what happens. Never a dull moment around here :)