What a Network of Support

You guys are the best! Thank you so much for all your words of support, well wishes, and just plain love. You guys are amazing. You have no idea what it means to us to know that you are all in this with us. You guys have mown our grass, brought meals to the other half of my family, brought us meals here at the hospital, send Bailey part of your Halloween candy and one of your very own little stuffed animals, think about us every day, and pray for us every moment of every day. What more could we need? Thank you all so much. We appreciate each and every one of you . . . even those of you we don't know and may never meet. You all have a very special place in our hearts.

Bailey's cardioversion went well today. It only took one try, and they were also able to get her PIC line in while she was under anesthesia. That is a big deal to us - Bailey gets so stressed out for those since she had a really bad experience with one back in the Berlin Heart days resulting in temporary injury to her left arm. We so appreciate the special arrangements they made to get that coordinated with the cardioversion. Since after the last cardioversion (Friday) she was only in sinus rhythm for 45 minutes, I've been holding my breath all day and trying to keep from staring at the green number on the heart monitor. Our resident came in just a few minutes ago (she normally doesn't come in this late at night) and I had the urge to run and brace the door and not let her in because I just had a feeling the words coming out of her mouth were going to be, "Bailey, you're in flutter." But I thought better of it since I was sitting with Bailey on her bed at the time and any number of her IV lines could have gotten tangled around one of my appendages . . . and that would not have been good. But she didn't have any bad news to give us anyway - she was just checking in. She said herself that she was trying not to stare are the monitor all night. Ha! I'm not the only one holding my breath.

She's been pretty tired today and a pretty good cough (still not sure if from a cold or from heart failure) and lots of bloody noses. They're not giving her a blood thinner anymore for now in hopes that her blood will thicken in time for a surgery on Friday or Monday. Still not sure when it will be. I don't think Dr. T likes Friday because of a lighter weekend crew but don't know if they want to wait for Monday. We'll see. We're just hoping she stays in rhythm until then.

I came back from dropping Bailey off at her procedure this morning and Tom and I just glanced up to the noon news to see "Adams Elementary Evacuated" and then they moved to the next story. Well, that's Marissa's school! We were on the verge of getting all panicky -- you know, you guys say how strong I am but I think that would have probably been my limit if something bad would have happened at school -- and Tom made some calls and found out that it was just a paint fumes issue. The kids were taken to the high school for the day where they would be picked up and taken home at their normal time, or the parents were invited to pick them up if they wished. When they came to visit tonight, Riss said, "Mommy, we had an unscheduled field trip today!" Haha! She was cute - they had a lot of fun playing and watching movies at the high school. I just thank God it was nothing more than paint fumes.

Mom brought by a printout of an inspirational e-mail today and I found exactly what I needed in the small print at the end: "Instead of telling God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is." Ahhh, that's exactly what I needed to hear today.

Good night.
Angie