Belle's surgery

We will leave tomorrow for Children's hospital in Minneapolis at about 5:45 tomorrow morning. Mom's coming here at 5:30 to watch Isaiah and kid Audri on the bus. We're really not sure how long we will be there. I've heard anywhere from an hour to three hours for the procedure and about four to six of recovery. Occasionally patients will spend the night depending on how they're doing. On Monday the nurse called me for the pre-op questions and apparently didn't know she had hypotonia. I guess there's a risk with sedation and hypotonia and she wanted to talk to the dr before we talked anymore. She finally called me back at the end of the day and said she was uncomfortable using sedation with her due to the risks and they want to do anesthesia but can't find any available drs for it. So we'll have to reschedule for sometime in December was the next time. I talked to the lady about how I'm glad she was honest about the risks and what she was comfortable with but that I would really like to see what they could work out since I closed the daycare, mom and Jose took off work, etc. She said she'd work on it some more and get back to me on Tuesday. She called me and said the procedure is still on and what they're doing is a different type of anesthesia that will put her out more and will have a sedation team monitoring her. So needless to say, besides your normal Mom worry, I am uneasy about what risks she is still under. I will do my best to update here as quickly as I can, but feel free to call Jose's phone too - he'll be with me. For more information, the heart murmur she has is called a PDA (Patent ductus arteriosus). The procedure they will be doing is called a Cardiac catheterization. Both of these are covered well on the internet, but basically there's a spot in a baby's heart that is open to override the blood flow for the lungs since they don't need them in utero and when they're born it should close within a few days. Hers did not and it causes the heart and lungs to work harder. The procedure they're doing is a catheter put into an artery or vein in the groin area and get it up to the spot in her heart and then use a small coil or plug to close up the PDA. She will not need stitches and should be able to come home tomorrow with just a little discomfort that Tylenol can handle. Very generic description of both but that's the understanding I have of it all. I'll keep you posted!