Let me show you this book!

Ok, so before we ever left the hospital with Piper (after she was born), we talked with Dr. Duncan of BCCH at Surrey MH and he drew out this lovely diagram of Piper's condition etc, etc. He wrote down a bunch of numbers for us, people to contact and call etc. Anyways, in the midst of all of that, he said "next time you come to BCCH, we'll give you this special book about heart conditions". Ok, kinda cool. I love books. But really, I had no idea what to expect.

It turns out that a lot of thought has gone into stuff like this. I wanted to show you all the amount of work that has gone into preparing parents for this kind of thing. Man, these people are really on the ball!

Here is the lovely cover of the binder of info (nice and colorful, and easy to read!)

Then, there is just more specific info on exactly what will be happening to Piper when she has her heart surgery. They are constantly thinking of the parents. So nice.

Then they have everything nicely organized for all the situations that will come up, pre-surgery. Lots of diagrams and words of encouragement, and really helpful, honest information. They tell you exactly what will happen to your baby the whole way through.

The part I especially like are the little quotes along the sides of all the pages from other parents who have gone through all of this, and are commenting on certain aspects of having your child have heart surgery. They are quite encouraging :)

Anyways, just singing the praise of this hospital and all its going through to keep our baby safe.

The nurse for Dr. Duncan called the other day to just see how I was feeling about Piper's angiogram and if I had any questions. Like, genuine concern. Yeah, I've never met this woman, but she was awesome. She gave me more info for the day of and gave me some reassurance of how standard this is (they do 10 of these a week!)

She also said that once the doctors and surgeons have the results of the angiogram, they will discuss them as a panel (yeah, like a whole bunch of really smart doctors all talking about how best to help our baby!) and decide when would be the best date for surgery (the Dr has mentioned mid-November, but they will then solidify it- who knows, maybe the results will change something?). They will let us know within about a week or so of her angiogram when surgery will be.

That makes me feel really relieved. I would love to pencil a date down in my book. I need something to aim towards, to count days off. I need the visual of the days creeping nearer.

I feel as though I will soon be able to see an end point, when we can really start relaxing.

Big breath.

On another note, with Piper having 2 teeth now, we pulled out her spoons and let her play with them, as she is all the more closer to being ready to eat. She can grab them all on her own, and like everything else, goes straight in her mouth. We haven't started solids yet (she is just barely 5 months), but I think she'll be pretty eager for them!