Up

5.26am

It's been a long short night. Abi was waking up often and so were we.

Now it's time to pack the stuff and head to the hospital in 25 minutes.

Art

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I just wanted to add that Abi slept with me in 1 bed tonight for the very first time. It was an interesting experience. She had hard time falling asleep in a different bed, not her crib, but I think she enjoyed the idea of mommy lying next to her. She woke up several times to reposition and to eat before midnight - the last time she could drink milk. She woke up again around 3am, 4am to see if I'm there and touch my face. It was soo cute. At 4:40am she woke up again, when she had some pedialite.

J.

Out of hospital

We are leaving the hospital after pre-op. The last person we talked to is Anna- the anesthesiologist from Poznan, Poland who we met last time we were here. We realized how many people have recognized Abi and us, including the radiology tech-we didn't even remember.
Abi did so well today! Though, she cried so much when she had her blood drawn - well when they attempted to do so on both arms with no success. We found out later from Anna that they can do it in the morning while she's asleep and will only delay the surgery by minutes! What? What's the point then? To save 10-15 minutes? I'd so much rather save her tears!







Before the lab.









Chilling on daddy's arms...








EKG

Now, she's sleeping while we are heading to the nearest Target to get a few things, eat on the way and we are going to the Ronald McDonald house where we got the room for tonight. We are not going to stay there after the surgery and will try our luck in the lottery for the room in the hospital. We want to be as close to Abi as possible while she's in CICU.
Thank you all for joining us in this difficult journey number 2!

Joanna.

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From The PreOp part 2

The cardiology fellow came back with ...... the correct information this time. Yes, we were right and he had to call Abi's surgeon to straighten this out.

Tomorrow's surgery will correct the pulmonary venous baffle created during the first surgery back in December 2009. The surgery will last about 3-4 hours but Abi may be in the operating room for up to 6 hours. The surgery bears the same risks for the possible complications. Going through the scar tissue will be very challenging and unfortunately there is nothing they can do in advance to know more details. They will see as they go, step by step.

We also just talked to the surgeon and seems like the surgery should be first thing in the morning.

More to come.

From the PreOp part 1

11.36am

Abi just went through her physical really well, her vitals were fine and then the cardiologist fellow came in to talk to us about tomorrow's surgery. Well it didn't go well- for him. When asked if we knew what the surgery would be for we let him explain the details to us. To our surprise we found out he didn't really know what he was talking about and less than 2 minutes after he came and we educated him on Abi's condition he had to leave to figure out what is going on. He mentioned the Rastelli's precedure that we are familiar with and as far as we know this is not what Abi will have done.

Now he's gone looking for the correct information and we...... keep waiting in the preop room.

Art's Dad - short update

Just a short update on my dad. He's doing amazingly well. Already walking, all the IVs have been taken out and everything seems to be great! He's scheduled to be moved from this heart hospital a to a heart PT center this Wednesday and should be home within the next 2 weeks.


Just thought I would let you all know and thank you for your prayers! 


Art

7 months of joy

I can't believe I didn't mention Abi is turning 7 months TODAY!!
What can she do now?
-  can sit by herself;
- understands what we say to her in Polish, English and sign language (including milk, bath and car-ride);
- points out things she wants to reach and/or have;
- reaches to us when we say "come to mommy/daddy";
- makes all kinds of noises, including "singing" when I sing to her and "calling" when she wants mommy or daddy to come;
- wants to eat with a spoon by herself;
- and the most recent one - she gives herself kisses when reading a book (a gift from Shari)with mirrors.

She's such a big girl.

I love Abi.

J.

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Dad's Surgery- Update

My Dad's surgery was delayed by 2 hours, but everything went well and smooth. My mom got to talk to him over the phone about an hour after the surgery so he's doing pretty well!


If everything continues going this well, he will be out of this hospital next Wednesday and back home in 3 weeks, and then here in NC sometime in June ;-)


Art

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