Pre-Admission Clinic (PAC)

Today we had the Pre-Admission Clinic (PAC).  We had to be at the hospital by 7am (yikes!).  So at 6:15am I had to drag Chloe out of bed to eat and catch the cab.  She was not impressed in the least.

She had the full work up and vitals and all that.  Then we had a chest x-ray and blood work done.  She was NOT happy about the poke, but she was brave.  They put cream on her arm to kind of numb it first.  We met with physio, surgeon, social worker, fellow/resident, etc.  Then took a snack break.  Chloe said she was "bored" (but I think mostly she was tired and hungry).  Then we had to go upstairs for EKG and echo.  She was really patient through all of it.  Nanny Moore sent her a little present to open at the hospital to cheer her up.  She opened a crown today and loved it.  So did all the nurses -everyone was calling her Princess Chloe and she thought she'd died and gone to Heaven. 

So far the plan is we come to the Mazankowski Heart Center (right next to the Stollery) tomorrow at 9am for the MRI.  They will be sedating her and probably put a small breathing tube it just for the procedure.  It should take 1-2 hours and she should wake up fairly quickly.  After that we should be good to go after a few hours of observation.  This MRI is just to get a really good look at the valve in her heart.  Dr Rebeyka (surgeon) says that replacing the conduit(graft) will be basically the same as the previous surgery.  He will choose the largest size he can for her size so hopefully it will last her longer this time.  He told us the valve is leaking (which we knew).  He is going to try to repair the valve so he needs a really good look at it (MRI) before surgery.  If it cannot be repaired he may have to replace it.  They don't like to do that with young children because then she would have to be on a certain type of blood thinner (Warfarin) which can have not so pleasant side effects in a small percentage of patients -and they don't like to give it to children, especially not over extended periods of time. 

Physio said the most important things are going to be to get her up and moving to make sure her lungs stay clear and good.  Of course, that won't be in the PICU (it will wait til the pediatric ward).  After surgery it will be most important to remember no pushing, pulling, lifting more than an few pounds.  Chloe may have a hard time grasping the concept of no rough-housing, no monkey bars, no climbing, etc.  haha. 

We should know surgery time by Friday afternoon.  I'm hoping for first case so it's easier for her to fast. 

Then we ate lunch and saw the anesthetist.  The Child Life workers were pretty busy, so we skipped that visit.  We (FINALLY) got to go back to the "Donald House" as Chloe calls it.  And we ran into Jenn -one of my past managers from when I was working at Old Fashion Foods!  Crazy.  They have been here since end of May for her son.  I have also met one family from Estevan who are hopefully going home tomorrow, and one family who is from Moose Jaw!  Small world. 

Had fun talking via Face Time with Carter, Hailey, and Paul.  Chloe was so tired from the long day that she crashed as soon as we got upstairs to our room.  We went grocery shopping earlier and she almost fell asleep in the cart -which wouldn't have been good since we had to then walk back to the house.  I ended up giving her a piggy back ride while I carried groceries for part of the walk -while it was spitting rain.  Fun.  Haha. 

Chloe

Here is the family inside the "World's Largest Dinosaur" in Drumheller, Alberta.  In case you are wondering... we are trying to ROAR like dinosaurs.  haha.  We had an AWESOME trip!  The kids loved it and they were so good.  We had loads of fun and laughs. 

Anyway, I started this blog awhile ago but haven't posted until now.  I was trying to find an easier way to update everyone on Chloe's surgery and recovery.  The hospital has computers but they are only a few per wing and they tend to be busy lots with parents doing the same thing or checking emails.  But I thought if I could find a way to update via my iPhone I would get it done easier and be able to be closer to Chloe.  So we are going to try this out for awhile.  If I can I may copy and paste some updates to CarePages, but I think this will work better for us.

Megan