9.19.2011

Home, Blessed Home

It is very late, so this will be a short post (well, a short post in Meagan-style, which is probably long, but whatever).

WE ARE HOME.

There were several points during the day when we didn't think we would be home tonight. They had warned us it could go either way with a child Quinn's age. While we hoped we could come home, obviously if overnight was in store and in the best interest of Quinnie, that's what we would do.

I'll go into more details tomorrow (oh and YES we have pics - ha. Every event, catheter procedure or not is a picture-taking opportunity at the Clanahan's). This much I can say -- it was  LONG day. Definitely good preparation for what's to come next week. And of course, H-town has not seen rain since pretty much February and we drove to the med center in an amazing thunderstorm. Well, it would have been amazing if we hadn't been freaking out so much about getting to the med center on time!

Everything went very smoothly with the pre-op procedures and Quinn was an angel. Seriously. I get so irritated if I don't have my diet coke and breakfast first thing in the morning - and this child was literally scooped up out of her bed, diaper changed and thrown in the car at 6am - no breakfast, no milk, no nothing. And literally not a peep out of her the entire way! And then she proceeded to roam the TCH halls in search of friends in registration and charmed about everyone on staff. Humbling. I was already weary - and this child who missed breakfast and was in a whole new place was literally putting on a show.

Anyway - fast forward so I can save a few details for when I am more coherent. The cath, which was supposed to be more "diagnostic" (taking pictures and the like to get a better idea of what the surgeon can expect next week), ended up being partial diagnostic and partial intervention. As previously suspected on her last echo, she did have a collateral vessel that had formed - serving no function but her body just made it in a futile attempt to try to bring more oxygenated blood into her system. Definitely not unheard of but we weren't sure if was actually there. Well, sure enough, during one our hourly updates (praise God by the way for the nurse Susan who called every hour on the dot to provide updates), we were told that it was indeed present and they were going to attempt to "coil" it off - more on that later. Anyway, it ended up being a very difficult location and a very difficult vessel to coil. The doctor spent hours trying to reach it and coil it -- and straight from her mouth, she was just about to give up, and "pop" - there it went in place. I'll explain more tomorrow why it was sooo important they get that coil in place.

Anyway - so a 3-4 hr cath "procedure" turned into an over 5 hour - and by the time we got to see her, it had been a good 6 1/2. Whew. Long time for baby girl to be under.

It took her awhile to regain her sea legs but once she did, she just wanted to move and go and play and was connected to all of these wires, and just couldn't. So she was so frustrated. Finally she decided it would be a good time to eat, so she took down some food and fell asleep on my chest for a good hour until they prepped us for discharge (I am leaving out a TON of details - feel blessed! ha!)

Most importantly, we are all home now and Quinn is doing great. I just checked on her and she is sleeping soundly after having yogurt snack at home.

Words cannot express the thankfulness I have to all of you who posted on facebook, sent emails, messages, texts, made phone calls and the like --- I was blown away by the sea of green on our page. (I'll post about that tomorrow too - for newcomers so you know why we wear green). Thanks and blessings to you all. We are immensely grateful for your prayers and know without a doubt, when they were trying to pop in that key coil, that prayers gave them the extra push they needed.

Love you all. Hope some (if any) of this makes sense. Will post on more than 4 hours of sleep and 14 hours of sitting next time :)

xoxo,



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1 comment:

rachel said...

I am teary just reading all this. I can't wait to hear all the details. So thankful you are all home safely. And it sounds like she picked up her eating just fine!!!