Long Day

Yesterday was quite long. We began at HEB hospital with Terrie's pre-op instructions. What we thought was going to take about an hour (based on the heart cath pre-op) turned into almost 4 hrs. Since we were scheduled at 12:30 PM, we waited to eat lunch until after. Mistake! The situation was complicated because we had Brishen (7yrs) & Keeley (5yrs) with us - not because they misbehaved, but the long wait was hard on them. They stayed busy watching a DVD on the portable player and playing on Brishen's DS, but they did get pretty hungry. Thanks to the popcorn vendor in the lobby, we were able to keep them satisfied for a while. By the time we finished at HEB, we had to rush to the next appointment with the surgeon in Irving (11 miles away). We were able to make a pass through the Chick-fil-A drive through and then eat in the doc's waiting room. Whew! However, it was a very affirming day in most ways. Here's the short version:

• we received more confirmation and positive comments about the surgeon. Everyone we have heard from in the medical field has praised him. Non-medical people have also.
• he was extremely nice and helpful and explained everything very dramatically. He is quite animated and fun to listen to. He is a Czech and has a really cool accent!
• he told us multiple times how fortunate (we say blessed) Terrie is to have discovered her heart problem the way she did rather than through a heart attack. He usually doesn't have the luxury of sitting down with his patients a few days before surgery to calmly explain what will happen. He normally is hurrying to save a life!
• the CCU charge nurse at HEB promised to work hard to control Terrie's nausea in the CCU in the days immediately after the surgery. He said they are very vigilant about that very thing in that unit. She will have a cardiac nurse personally and uniquely assigned to her in the CCU. After a few days in the CCU (Critical Care Unit), she will go to the CSU (Cardiac Step-down Unit).
• one negative comment came from the surgeon: he feels that since Terrie has such a strong nausea reaction to meds, she will likely still get nauseated from being medicated, but that it should be diminished from what she has had before. Let's keep praying for NONE!

We report to the hospital at 6 AM next Tuesday for a scheduled 7 AM surgery. They say that the surgery will likely not be completed until early to mid-afternoon. Most of the time is taken to prepare her for surgery and the actual work on her heart takes relatively little time. So, we are in for a long wait on Tuesday once they take her in. When completed, they will not wake her, but take her and all her support equipment directly to CCU. If they have a wireless connection in the surgical waiting room, I'll update the blog as I get surgery updates from the circulating nurse. All of you guys are so great for praying for us! Keep it up!