The Plan

Well, Dr. D came in this morning and drew out a plan for the week. He's cardioverting tomorrow and hoping Bailey can stay in sinus rhythm for a few days to get some fluid off and as good a shape as possible so she can have surgery at the end of the week. If she goes right back into flutter tomorrow, the surgery will likely happen before Friday, because she is only getting sicker when she's in flutter. She's been gaining 2 pounds a day these past few days while in flutter. Dr. D and Dr. T have been in and out throughout the day checking on her and asking for any questions she might have thought of. It's quite obvious no one here wants to see her go through all this again, but they've come to the conclusion that it's necessary to get her to feel better. So, we're facing the exact same scenario that we faced nearly 3 years ago: a repair surgery which may or may not result in a VAD which may or may not result in a transplant. The repair surgery will include repairing or replacing 3 of her 4 valves and a Maze procedure which will scar up the inside of her heart so that the electric current can only follow a certain path which will keep her from going into flutter. It may also involve removing from scar tissue from the inside of her left ventricle left there by the Berlin Heart cannulas. If they have problems getting her off the by-pass machine, Dr. T will put in a VAD (ventricular assist device) that will assist her heart in pumping her blood throughout her body. Her kidneys will work better and hopefully the fluid will disappear. Am I rambling? I still feel like I'm trying to let this all sink in.

Bailey is doing ok with all this. Last Friday she didn't want to talk about it, but she started asking questions over the weekend and continued with her questions today and it must be making her feel better because she's more alert and awake and more like Bailey than she has been in 5 days. She's scared, that's for sure. I'm scared, that's for sure. But with God and the doctors here at Riley on our side, we are prayerfully hopeful that Bailey will be feeling better soon.

Dr. D came up this afternoon and caught me out in the hallway. He just looked sad and dejected and said, "So, does Bailey just really not want to see me?" I felt like I needed to give him a great big hug. He's so sweet. I just love everybody here. We feel so safe here and know we are in the best of hands. But that doesn't mean this is going to be easy. It's going to be awful. I'm going to miss Bailey while she's asleep for days. Those days and nights in ICU are going to be long and lonely. But we're going to do what we need to do. I just want Bailey to feel better.

Looks like we'll be here for Thanksgiving and maybe even Christmas. That's ok. We're right where we need to be.

Love you all,
Angie