Home for the Holiday!

Well, not exactly home, but out of the hospital!

I decided to sleep back at Marde's house last night, to get a good nights sleep, and to see my boys, who I hadn't seen since tuesday morning. It was wonderful, by the way. I think that is probably the first time I've been able to sleep through the night in about 6 months. Anyway, I was getting ready to head back over to the hospital this morning, to hang out with Ivy and pester the docs into letting her transfer back into the surgical unit, when all the sudden my phone rang. It was Ivy's nurse at primary's, he told me to come pick her up, they were letting her go home!! I seriously sprinted up the stairs to tell Scott, and was out the door in less than three minutes.

It took about a half hour to sign all the papers, and pack up her stuff, and we were back at Marde's by noon. What a marvelous day!! I couldn't be more happy that they let her go. Fortunately, I didn't have to see Dr. Jerkface again. Maybe when we have to come back in a few months I will have had enough time to forgive him for being a jerkface and I wont have to fight my impulses to punch him in the face, but for now, it's probably best that he kept his distance.

Here are some pictures from our last 3 and a half days at primary children's. Notice how happy Ivy is in every single picture. That is because she was being her normal, cute, NOT sick self! Enjoy.

Ivy's Latest Cath

So Ivy had her cath today, the one we didn't plan on. Dr. Jerkface (I'm not going to say his real name since I can't stand his freaking guts) said she did fine. They did some things that will make her Glenn procedure a little easier when the time comes in 3 or 4 months. After the cath they said she needed to be in the picu overnight, which we hate. The picu is loud, there's nowhere to sit, and there's nowhere to sleep. If I want to stay over night with her I have to fight other parents for a room, and I am just so sick of being here, that I don't know if I even want to.

Dr. Jerkface said she would probably need to stay a few more days, even though originally he told us that it would be just overnight. When I pointed this out to him he got defensive and said that Ivy would never be normal and we agreed to go along for the ride when we first made attempts to save her. "I know that Dr. Jerkface!!" Can you tell this doctor is not my favorite person.

So anyway, we are in the picu waiting room now, because its shift change and they wont let us in for another hour. We don't know what we are doing tonight, but we are just hoping she can get out of the annoying picu as soon as possible. I guess that's all the frustrations I care to vent out for now. I'm sure I'll have more adventures with Dr. Jerkface to share in the next few days.

Doctors Do Little

Well, the last 2 days have been pretty frustrating for us. So far nothing has gone as we planned. We were scheduled to have Ivy's big surgery today (July 1st) but after we arrived at the hospital yesterday we were informed that the surgery had been canceled a week ago! And of course, nobody told us, the patient and parents! The doctors in Salt Lake decided that it wouldn't be a good time for her right now and want to wait another 6-7 months. This is all after they had looked over her paperwork weeks ago and decided then that she was ready. Anyway, they were worried about her oxygen level and decided to admit her against our will for 2 days and 2 nights until they could do a minor cath operation on Thursday to help prolong the oxygen situation until she is really ready for the surgery. So, Ivy and Rochelle have been stuck in the hospital for the last 2 days all so they can watch her oxygen level, something we can easily do at home and have been doing fine for the last 6 months. For some reason they didn't believe us that we could take care of her on our own for 2 days while we waited for the procedure. Needless to say, we are not too happy with the situation right now. Tomorrow (Thursday) she is scheduled to have the cath and if everything goes well, we might be able to get Ivy out of that hospital that night or early Friday. Who knows what will happen? Nothing is certain right now because we are basically walk-ins that are being worked into the schedule because our "scheduled" times were canceled behind our backs.

Gearing Up for Surgery

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on the blog, but Ivy's surgery is coming up on July 1st. We decided that before the very stressful time that we will spend in the hospital, it would be perfect to spend a couple of days with some friends at Ross and Marde's cabins at bear lake. This will be our third year of going there with our closest friends and we are really looking forward to it. Especially since for a while there we were afraid it wouldn't happen this year.
Here's Ives is in her swimsuit for Bear Lake. Its a 12 month size so its a little big, but I couldn't find a smaller size!

Anyway, we are pretty nervous for Ivy's surgery, but are really hoping for the best. She has been doing SO WELL lately and it almost seems a shame to go back to square one. The doctors say it is best to do the surgery when she is doing well, so at least we've got that going for us.

So here's a little update on how she is doing lately. She is currently at 12 lbs and grows about 3 oz every week (which is awesome for her), she still eats really well and spits up a lot less. She has also excelled at eating solid foods, she LOVES it! She can roll over really well from belly to back, but not quite as good the other way around. She doesn't sit up on her own yet, but is getting close (I hope she doesn't regress too much after surgery). She loves to clap and wave, and also pats our backs whenever we pick her up. She is also still a big fan of her tongue and constantly sticks it out. She is (finally) sleeping in her crib in her bedroom, instead of the one next to our bed. That was because of me, not her, I was nervous to have her far away.

Here is the cross-stitch that I finished months ago. Actually I finished it before Dex was born, since I didn't know if he was a boy or girl I made a one of each, then I added her name and stats a few months ago. I finally had it framed last week, on my own. I hope Marde is proud of my initiative. Doesn't it look cute!!


PS. To update on the ant situation, I haven't seen a live ant for days, but I do see a couple million dead ant bodies all around the outside of my house!! I guess that means it worked! On a more negative note, the day after the dude sprayed I was bitten by a spider, and Corbin was stung by a bee....revenge??????

Ivy's New Room

Since Scott was off work for Memorial Day Weekend I decided it would be the perfect time to paint Ivy's room. This is actually the first painting job in the house so far. We've lived here almost a year now, so its about time!

Scott helped me tape around the edges and in the center of the room, but I did all the painting myself. Scott hates painting and always wants just white walls, because it is too much work. I always have to beg him to let me paint anything. So I promised to do the work myself, if he watched the kiddos, and he agreed. After all the painting was done and dry, Scott was a great sport and helped me put up the border (which turned out to be way more difficult than I had anticipated).

Anyway, here is the finished product. To my surprise, it turned out very cute (after I painted the green, I was like, oh crap it looks like mint!), I am very happy with the results. In case you can't tell from the pictures, the bottom is a very light pink, and the top is green.

Ready to be Done

Ivy had her catheterization yesterday, and we are so glad its over. We were stuck at the hospital for over 12 hours yesterday for what was supposed to be a relatively short procedure. The doctors told us that the procedure itself would be 2 or 3 hours, and then of course there is prep time, recovery time etc. All leading us to a discharge time of about 5:30 pm. Well they were a little off on their estimates. The procedure ended up taking 5 hours and the recovery time was SUPER long. Apparently they couldn't get her to stop bleeding, which happened with her very first surgery as well. They had to spend an extra hour getting it to stop.

Meanwhile, Scott and I are in the waiting room expecting the doc to come out and speak to us any minute (we'd recieved a call in the waiting room saying he would be out momentarily), but he never came out. I had such a horrible feeling of dread waiting there for him. Where could he be? What is going on? Is she okay? Finally, after about an hour Scott asked the receptionist to find out what was happening, so she did. That's when we found out about the bleeding, but she said that they just got it to stop and that the doc would definately be out in a moment. I was SO RELIEVED.

So Dr. Womack finally came out and explained everything that went on, and said things had gone well (up until the excessive bleeding), and they got all the information that they needed to be able to proceed to the next step (surgery). Hooray! We then headed to recovery to be re-united with our little trooper. She was swollen, tired, and quite grumpy, but she looked good. We waited and waited to be released, and waited some more. Ivy couldn't pee.........we tried scaring it out of her by saying we wouldn't be able to go home.........she finally wet, and I mean WET! Then the doc had to do another quick echo, followed by another LONG discussion. More waiting......and finally at 8:15 or so we signed the release papers and walked out the door. Thankful to be done!

So thanks again Russell and Collette, you guys are amazing. Seriously, we owe you big time!

Anyway, it looks like surgery will be taking place sometime in early to mid june. I know it sounds wierd, but we can hardly wait. I am nervous of course, but I am so sick of this looming over head. I just want to be finished (for a while anyway). Finished with the nurses, physical therapists, dietitions, social workers, doctors, doctors appointments, endless paperwork, and most of all, the mountain of bills. After this surgery, we will still have all those things for about a month, but then most of them will either diminish substantially, or go away all together. I will have no problem giving them up!

Ivy's MRI

So Ivy had her pre-op MRI today, and she is a little champ. She wasn't allowed to eat after 7 am, and refused to eat since 4:45am, so by the time everything was done at about 2 pm, she was pretty hungry! We went into the hospital super early this morning where they made her cry several times for various reasons like, poking her arm for an IV, checking her oxygen sats, taking her blood pressure, or just bugging her in general. They finally got us in for the MRI at about 11:30 am, after hours of waiting. They had to give her some anesthesia since for an MRI you need to be perfectly still. It was weird because I was holding her and they pushed the button to start the medication, and said, "it works pretty fast" and she instantly went limp in my arms, before her eyes even closed. They grabbed her from me and laid her down and she was out cold! They took pics of her heart for about an hour and a half and then we were allowed to see her again. They kept the anesthesia on for a few more minutes while they also did an echo (more heart pics), and then turned it off. She woke back up within 5 minutes, crazy.

We don't yet know what they found in the MRI, but should have the results in just a couple of days. She has her cath procedure on Monday, and that will give us more information also.

I also want to say thanks to Russell and Collette for taking our boys overnight and watching them for SO LONG while all this went on. Our boys had a great time, they love you guys, You're the best! And thank you in advance for Monday as well!

A Cath, by-the-way, is a procedure where they take very small catheters into either the jugular or an artery near the groin area, and maneuver it to the heart and then they are able to check things like size, pressure, flow, etc. All of these things will bring us closer to surgery which, due to oxygen saturation's, will most likely be sometime in June.
Good job today Ivy, you are such a good sport! We love you!