Angiogram Day

So yesterday, I started my day off at 3:45am, to get Piper's last feeding in before 4am. Hooray for me! I hadn't really slept all that well for the past 2 nights, so it was almost a relief to just be up and to quit trying to sleep.

Anyways, feed the baby, get all of our random things out the door (books, laptops for boredom, snacks) and away we were in the darkness of the morning! Traffic was awesome, except leaving Surrey we got every light. Really strange. Oh well.

We arrived at BCCH just in time and were admitted to the little pre-area (I am finding that there are waiting rooms, for waiting rooms for everything... kinda a big emphasis on waiting).

Here a lovely nurse (they are all lovely nurses. I'll let you know when we meet a not-so-lovely one) measured and weighed Piper, and took her Saturation levels (almost always near 100%!) and checked her heart rate, blood pressure etc.

Later, the nurse numbed Piper's hand and foot, both possible points for the IV. I think the vein in her foot looked better than the ones in her hand. Then they put little bandages on her fist and foot to keep the numbing gel on.

Then we got all called into another waiting room

All was well, and Piper was actually not even crying yet (even though it was almost 4 hours since she had eaten last). After waiting in the day surgery waiting room, we were called into another waiting room to meet the anesthetist. He popped in, asked the same questions everyone else had (allergies, family history, when she last ate...) and then he disappeared. Soon, another nurse came to us and cooed at Piper and checked her foot tag (not on her wrist, as she could really scratch herself with it), and told us she would be taking her away to the Cath lab for her angiogram. We weren't allowed to bring her in...

Then we waited. Fortunately, my sister had come with us and could keep us busy. We found to cafeteria and had some brekkie, while we waited for about an hour and a half, when they said she would be done.

The waiting wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It actually really helped to have someone else other than Matt there. Matt and I might have just stared at each other, thinking the same things and it would have stretched out that hour.

So breakfast was nice, and then it was back to the first waiting room.

Not long after, Dr. Duncan came out to tell us everything went fine and she was in recovery for a little while as she woke up. He said they tried to put the catheter in her right groin area, and it didn't work (2 pokes later), then he tried the left and it went much better. He said he got all the images they wanted and encountered no surprises.

Then, more waiting. He said about another half an hour.

So finally, I was called in (I think only one of us could go) by Dr. Duncan to see her. He said she was still sleeping. As I walked into the room, he pointed to the far corner and I could see a nurse hanging her hands over the bed bars and holding a pile of blankets down. As I got closer, I could see Piper's little pink head. And her eyes were open! She has just woken up!

This was the strangest part: she hardly looked like my baby. The nurse said that she was "pretty stoned", and I couldn't agree more. This is the only time I cried a little. Her eyes were so vacant, and her mouth was opened funny and she had no color in her lips or cheeks. She was just looking at me with these half open eyes and it was almost creepy. I knew she was my baby, but she just looked so different.

Then the nurse showed me the spot that they had put the catheter in and it was just a little red spot with some steri-strips marking it. It was a little bloody, but not too bad. The nurse was holding her left leg down because it needed to stay straight to make sure the vein that the catheter went in was properly healed. If she bent her leg too much, the vein would reopen and would start to ooze from the puncture site (and there would be a chance of blood clots- not good).

So soon after that, with another nurse, we wheeled Piper into the other recovery room with my holding her leg and also holding a bottle of sugar water that the nurse gave me to give her (apparently its really easy to digest and won't upset her tummy). We needed to keep her calm for a while.

So then Matt and Anna could come and see her. Piper was getting more and more real looking all the time. Her eyes opened more and she was even making some noises.

Soon, I could even nurse her, just keeping in mind to keep her flat. I was told to not nurse her too much, as she might just throw it all up, and then we'd have to wait a while to feed her again. She took her milk so contentedly, though a little drunkedly at first, but she figured it out.

Then, she just slept. A nurse would come every half hour to check her over, and the time went by pretty fast.

At some point, Dr. Duncan came back and actually showed us the footage they got of the catheter. It was so amazing! It was like a moving X-ray.

We could see the little catheter tube in her chest and then it would squirt some dye and with one heart pump, the dye was pushed everywhere! We could see her aorta, and all her capillaries and her heart chambers. It was all moving and all over the place. Somehow, the Dr could decipher what he needed to. He pointed out where some of the blood pours over into the other chamber when it shouldn't and that the muscle on the bottom of her heart was quite thick and would need to be cut away. He showed us a few different angles of when the dye got shot and it was amazing all over again! Such amazing technology!

He saw nothing new, and no surprises and everything looked just as he thought it would. He then told us that due to this, Piper is way at the bottom of the pecking order for surgery. He said there are about 70+ kids waiting at the moment. He thought that her surgery would be just before Christmas, or right after.

So that's a good thing and a bad thing. That is a whole two or more months for her to grow and get my milk and get strong. But its more waiting, too. Really, the longer we wait, the better. She will only be better for it. The only way we could bump her surgery up would be if something goes wrong with her, which we really don't want.

So I guess its more waiting.

After another good feed, and a nap, we were all ready to go home. She was checked over again, and the nurses gave us some info on things to watch for when we were home and then we were away! Dr. Duncan and a whole panel of docs and surgeons will look at the images from the angiogram on Monday and decide what is best for her. We should get a call in the next week to let us know a possible surgery date.

It was so nice to be home and just relax. We had gotten some wraps for a late lunch and just enjoyed them fully! Then, it was a big nap for every body. It felt so good. We were all pretty bagged. Piper would be up for about 20-40 mins and then back to bed. She was pretty happy when she was awake, she just didn't last long. But she had a pretty normal nights sleep and today has been pretty good. We are locked in the house due to the rain, and we are keeping her out of her Jumperoo (her fav!) just due to her cut, but other than that, she is doing so well. She needs a few more naps and lots of holding, but she is nearly back to herself.

So now, I eagerly await hearing from the hospital on what they think for Piper's surgery. Really, I should just get used to this waiting. I might be doing a lot of it for the next while.

Thanks again to every body for being so great to us. We felt a lot of love yesterday :)