Hattie's little heart

My sweet baby girl is having open heart surgery(OHS) later this month. It was originally scheduled to happen a couple of weeks ago. It was pushed back one day to accommodate a newborn that needed a surgery done at 4 days old. Of course we were happy to change our schedule for that family!

We had not planned on OHS. We discovered Hattie's heart defect when she was just a few weeks old, but hoped that she would grow out of it. When we found out that the hole was not closing, we learned that the type of heart defect she has is often repaired by a catheter procedure, which we expected to do around 3 years of age. We saw Hattie's cardiologist in August for a routine exam(she goes every 6 months) and the doctor was concerned about Hattie's heart enlargement. She informed us that the time to move is now, and unfortunately Hattie is not eligible for the catheter procedure due to her size. So we scheduled open heart surgery! 

Our first appointment was pretty early in the morning.

This is how a family of co-sleepers make use of a 2 bed room...it might look like we just threw the mattress on the floor, but there was some careful planning and safety checks involved, I promise!

We traveled to our university hospital on a Monday so that Hattie could see a physical therapist at our disabilities & development clinic. We were lucky enough to get into a hospitality house within the hospital where we could remain for the duration of Hattie's stay. Although I anticipate staying in Hattie's hospital room throughout our time there, I was very relieved to have a place to unpack, keep our things and possibly take some naps.

We had early appointments on Tuesday, and had a long meeting with the surgeon who will perform the surgery. Chris and I asked a lot of questions-some of Chris' questions involved terminology that I had no idea what he was talking about. The doctor really impressed us with his ability to defend the decision to do this surgery now as well as his reasons to do open heart instead of a few other types of repair. He was not at all offended that we were asking questions, which is something we've dealt with in other doctors, and was kind and pleasant in spite of Hattie's vocal protests of being in the same small room for over an hour. We've met a lot of doctors in the last few years, and have been consistently impressed with the ones at this hospital.

Shortly after the surgeon left, the nurse practionioner that was conductng some pre-op testing discovered the diaper rash that Hattie developed Monday afternoon. We had been warned that cold or flu symptoms could be reason to delay the surgery, but as it turns out, so is diaper rash! There were concerns that the rash was caused by a thrush infection and that the yeast could spread internally during surgery.

So  here we are, waiting for late October to arrive. We will return to the hospital for a new pre-op day, then Hattie will head into surgery very early in the morning. We did learn that she may be out of the hospital within a week if all goes well, so I am feeling pretty optimistic about things.