Cardiology Update and more

Alexa had her cardiologist visit on Friday, November 20th. She weighed 22 pounds 5 ounces. I cannot remember her height. Her oxygen sats were 79. For the first time Alexa was walking around the little room before Dr. P came in. He was happy to see her walking. As soon as he opened the door and the assistant was walking out from doing her vitals he asked her "What are her o2 Sats? He was pleasantly surprised. He told me he really thought they were going to be lower. Especially since her visit the ER and I had told him they kept bouncing around from to very low to her normal. We talked about how she is doing and talked a lot about surgeons and locations. Alexa had her last surgery at our local children's hospital with Dr. T. Now Dr. T is in another city.  I would like Dr. T to operate again because he has already been into her heart and knows the work he did before and not to forget he is an excellent surgeon. The problem is the location, that it is farther to us, and that all of my support system is here and that I have older children to think about and care for. I'm also worried about the amount/experience of this new hospital in dealing with babies after open heart surgeries, like the intensivist, nurses etc. So I have considered staying here and seeing someone at another great local hospital or maybe even going to C.S. Motts in Michigan with Dr. Bove. It's a hard heavy choice. I really just wish Dr. T was still here like before, that way I at least know the hospital, it is close by, and I trust Dr. T. Now no matter what, where, who we choose there will be something new. Open heart surgery is scary in and of itself and dealing with new unknown surroundings and people when you are trusting them with your child's life is overwhelming. I guess I just need to make some calls, maybe some appointments and just pray really hard on the matter. For a while we had been going to see Dr. P every 6 weeks. He now said he wanted to see us in 4 weeks. He said he might order a cath next time he sees us to be done in January. I was kind of surprised and sad by this. He said it was just a delicate balance we have to have with her and explained that she is pretty much done with that steep growing curve and so now waiting a month or two is not going to be much of a difference in the size of conduit they can place. I told him I just don't want her to have to 2 caths and he said no just one would be needed. I know he is thinking Cath in Jan and start thinking surgery in Feb/March. He said he would agree to wait a bit longer for the cath if her o2 Sats did not change or dip by the next appointment. Because of his schedule we will not be seeing again until December 31st. In the mean time I will just enjoy my baby and try to push surgery thoughts besides the planning out of my head.

Also, Alexa is currently sick. She started running a fever Sunday night, all day yesterday she felt awful, she was tired and achy didn't walk around the house and just wanted to be carried and held. It wasn't till her big brother and sister came home from school that she perked up a little bit. She was running a fever between 100 and 101. something. I called her cardiologist to see if it was okay to still giver her the baby aspirin she takes, he got on the phone with me and explained yes and why. He also wanted to know her symptoms and how she was doing. He suggested to call the peds office as he was worried about the flu. I called them as soon as I got of the phone but they told me to wait and see if how she did and if any other symptoms developed since she didn't have any other cold/flu type symptoms. She is currently still asleep this morning so I hope she has a better day. She did sleep better last night. I only gave her Tylenol once around 11 p.m.

Here are some random pics of the last few days.

In a cute dress after a morning in the ministry.

With cousins.

Her favorite playing outside with rocks and dirt.

Princess cousins.

Lot's of feathered visitors.

With my honey.