It seems strange to be back on the ward again after two
years – part of me feels like it has been such a long time since we were here
last and yet in some ways it seems like was just yesterday. It is lovely to see some familiar faces on
the ward though and Jessica has been very happy to be here on the whole – there
are plenty of toys to play with around the bedside and in the playroom and the
Little Tikes cars are always a big hit!
It’s also been lovely to have a few visits from friends too –
with visits so far from Godmummy Katy, Helen, Nick and Vicky – thank you all
for coming to see us and making our hospital stay a little more pleasant. One
of the best things about being back in Southampton is the wonderful support we
have here and I’m always blown away by just how kind everyone is. Having struggled to find Jessica some
front-buttoning pyjamas for our hospital stay (I only found one pair of boys
pyjamas in the end), I was so touched when Helen arrived with a pretty pair of
girl’s button-up pyjamas which were perfect – thank you so much. A huge thank you
too to Nick and Charlie for providing somewhere for Michael and Sophie to stay
while we are in hospital too.
Yesterday saw the usual pre-op bustle with various tests
needing to be carried out. The worst
bits were the blood tests and cannulation attempts – Jessica has never had the
easiest veins in the world and even with the magic cream, the multiple attempts
required for a successful cannulation were very upsetting for her. Thankfully
it all seemed to be forgotten very quickly once the cannulation was in. She
needed to have IV fluids overnight as her haemoglobin levels are high (which is
fairly common in children with cyanotic heart conditions) which means that she
is more at risk of clotting when nil by mouth due to being dehydrated.
We managed to stay distracted this morning with visits to
the playroom. Jessica was quite excited
when the trolley arrived and she got to ride in her “carriage” (as she called
it) to the cath lab. Whilst waiting, she
found a Megasketcher drawing board and was quite happily drawing pictures of
her dolly Kerry and a “shadow monster” whilst chatting away to the anaesthetist
about what was happening in the picture which provided good distraction from
everything happening. She wasn’t too
keen on the “sleepy milk” going in her arm as it felt cold but went off to sleep
very quickly and fairly happily which was a relief.
There was the usual wait of a couple of hours or so while
she was in the cath lab – with Sophie to distract us though, it didn’t feel nearly
so long. Once we had the call to say
Jessica was back, I headed over to find a very unhappy little lady in need of
her Mummy. We had a nice snuggle
together for the next hour or so, and gradually that beautiful smile started to
return and Jessica started to feel much better again.
Results wise, things seem to be fairly encouraging. Jessica’s pressures are good and her right
pulmonary artery is a good size, although the left one is (and has always been)
quite small. It may be that this will grow a little more
given time, but equally it may be that the increased blood flow that would
result from the Fontan would help it to grow.
With regards to the next stage, the catheter indicates that the
pressures are good enough for the Fontan to take place, but with things being
fairly stable at present, there seems to be no urgency. The team will discuss the results at their
next team meeting and may make a suggestion for when it might take place but
will also consider our thoughts on this too.
We’ll know a little more once the team meeting has taken place.
After a few hours to recover, Jessica was pretty much back
to her usual happy self and keen to get back in the cars and go driving around
the ward again! The site where the catheter was inserted in her groin is very
bruised and the team are keeping an eye on this overnight but otherwise all
seems to be well and we’re hoping to go home tomorrow. Thank you to everyone for all of your
thoughts and prayers today and we’ll keep you posted.
