Cardiac Cath

On June 29th, 2012, Whitney underwent her second Cardiac Catheterization  procedure.  We knew she was going to need another one done about a year after her first one.  Her first was when she was about 9 months old and it helped to wean her off oxygen and get very accurate info about her heart and lung pressures.  So we've had this cardiac cath scheduled for about 2 months.  I hated seeing it one the calender.  I hate sending my baby back for these scary procedures.  We had to get to the hospital at 530am to check in for our 730 surgery.  Thomas had to work, so thankfully my mom came with us.  She did her normal screaming and vomiting during her weight check.  The Dr.'s decided to give her Versed as soon as possible to calm her down.  I agreed!  I'm glad I could actually hear what the Dr.'s and nurses had to say with out having poor little miss Whit crying the whole time.  And it makes Whitney feel better too! 

They said they are going to measure all the pressures and blood flow.  Possible Angioplasty with or without stent placement (balloon open her left pulmonary artery) and close her PDA (Patent ductus arteriosus).  Dr. P. did her last cardiac cath and is very good at explaining everything. 

They took her back at 730am exactly.  They put her to sleep before they start the IV and intubation.  I was so tired that I slept (very uncomfortably) for a good portion of her procedure. That made the 4 hour wait a bit less worry some! 

The nurse came out around 9am to tell us that getting her prepped and finding a vein to go through took a long time, and that they have just started the procedure! 

Then they just called my cell phone around 1000am to say that they will need to balloon open her artery and put a coil in the PDA to close it.  Everything is going fine!

At 1130am Dr. P. came out to discuss the procedure with us.  He said that he remembered that Whitney's veins are like a roller coaster with lots of twists and turns.  It was very difficult to get the cath through.  He tried going through her right neck to see if that was more of a straight shot than her right groin.  It wasn't! In fact it was even more tortuous!  She got a big bruise on her poor neck!  They just went through her groin to do the procedure, leaving another big bruise.  Luckily no scars!  The numbers were really good compared to the first one.  So they feel good about weaning her off of the Sildenafil (AKA, baby viagra).  So like I said, they ballooned open her left pulmonary artery which was still small and kinked.  They put a coil in her PDA.  They decided to leave the ASD alone because it was just a little flap now and hopefully it will close or be fine on it own! 

Dr. P. walked us up to the Cardiac ICU to be with Whitney.  She was still sedated and on oxygen.  She has to be still for six hours because they don't want her leg to start bleeding.  It could bleed really easily because they gave her a ton of blood thinners!  I told them it would be best to keep her sedated then because if she woke up she'd freak out!  I was starving so my mom stayed with Whitney while I got lunch downstairs.  During which time, she did wake up!  Mom was trying to keep her still while yelling for a nurse.  They finally came and tried to calm her but mom said that just makes it worse.  So they gave her something to calm her down but it didn't even phase Whitney.  Then they gave her more Versed and that worked better.  I came back up from lunch.  Then they did an echo to make sure everything was still in place and looking good.  It was!  Poor baby girl was so scared and crying the whole time.  Eventually she fell back asleep and so my mom went home.  Later they did an xray, I had to step out but Whitney slept through the whole thing.  I slept on the chair by her bed till Thomas came that evening. 

Whitney was in a big huge bed at first.  We were in a room without a couch bed, just the dumb chairs.  I asked them if we can get a room with a crib and couch bed.  Being 20 weeks preggo, I can't sleep on that chair and Whit would fall out of that bed!   The floor was not crowded at all so they were able to switch our room! This room was so cool because it had a big ledge inbetween the window and couch.  So Thomas set up about 10 pillows back there and said he slept pretty well!  I was glad to get the bed to myself and also slept well! 

They started feeding her when she woke up around 7pm. This time I was incontroll of her feeding schedule! Cool! I told them to start slow at 30mls an hour for a couple hours, then to 40 ml's, then to her rate of 52ml's an hour. They said that the "order" was for 56 ml's an hour, I'm not sure were they got that but I firmly told them she can only handle 52ml's and hour with 2 hours off a day and that the 56 ml's was a goal we hadn't reached yet. All the dr.'s agreed with me and it was fine. 

She woke up around 3am.  Daddy read her some stories.  Then she vomited around 4am and pooped.  Then they did an xray at 5am.  Around 8 am she woke again to vomit and poop.  I told them her vomiting is normal and they said she could be discharged that day!  I'm so glad it was a short hospital stay with no complications!  What a blessing!  The morning after her procedure, she surprised us all by not screaming every time a nurse came in!  In fact she was acutally kinda cute and just a little scared!  She was even helpful!  She offered her own arm for the blood pressure cuff!  She offered her toe for the pluse oximeter!  She put forward her head to get her temp taken!  She lifted her shirt for them to listen to her heart and lungs!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  It was amazing!  I was so proud of her!  She even showed of her ABC skills and let the nurses talk to her! 

Not happy! And Bored!



Silly Goose!



 Getting ready to go home!

IV is out!  Playing around!  

BIG KISS FOR YOU!!

So she shouldn't need anymore Cardiac Cath's.  Just needs echo's a few times a year and she's good.  We got home around noon on Saturday June 30th.  Whitney slept the whole way home and took a long comfy nap in her own crib!  We took things very easy for the next couple of days but Whitney was back to her fun, happy, active self in no time!  Also we think that her GJ feeding tube is still in place!  Sweet!