The Last 72 Hours

Dear Friends,

First of all, Grace is doing great at Children's Hospital and the surgery went well. She will be in the hospital until Friday and then will come home to rest and recover. Let me recount the last 72 hours for most of you.

On Tuesday Morning we were scheduled to take Grace in at 8:00 AM for a barrage of tests and a visit with the surgeon who would perform the surgery to put in Grace's pacemaker. The afternoon before we got a call telling us that we would need to go in later because the doctor had a surgery that morning. We were rescheduled for Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM but the surgery was still on for Wednesday. We arrived a few minutes early and were sent down to get blood drawn from Grace. This was the second time this was done, the first being last Friday so they could test to see if she and I were compatible. They couldn't find a vein big enough to draw blood but they tried last Friday anyway. They finally took it from her foot. We told this to the nurse on Tuesday. She took it as a personal challenge and began trying. After minutes of screaming from grace she gave up but let go of Grace before taking out the needle! Finally she drew blood from her foot like the man did on Friday.

We then waited until almost 2:00 PM to have the EKG done which was the second lab. Around 2:45 we had a chest x-ray done and back down to the doctor's office to consult with the doctor. She was called to another emergency so they had us meet with the nurse practitioner in her place. This turned out to be a mistake. The nurse told us a lot of wrong information. She said they would have to cut through the sternum and open Grace's chest cavity to put in the pacemaker. She also showed us the wrong pacemaker that was much larger than the one Grace actually got. Finally, she said it would be on the surface and would be visible for years and very delicate. All of this was inaccurate but we didn't know it.

We waited another 45 minutes before the social worker was available to give us a tour of the surgical unit and the pediatric intensive care unit. We were still shaken by the wrong information from the nurse and left the hospital shell shocked. We were pretty traumatized and fought back tears the whole evening imagining the pain and suffering Grace was going to go through the next morning. At about 12:45 in the morning we prayed and committed the surgery and Grace to the Lord.

We awoke at 4:30 to feed Grace one last time and prepare to take her to the hospital. After check-in we waited for the doctor to talk with us before we released Grace to her care. She came and explained the procedure. Grace's sternum would not be cut as they would go in underneath and reach the heart. Further, the pacemaker was much smaller than the one the nurse showed us and they put it under the stomach muscles so you will not see it or feel it on the surface.

We were blessed to have Jenn's mom, a family friend Joanne, Pastor Wayne and Lucy Atkins, and two of my friends, Patrick and Jeff there to keep us company while Grace was having surgery. She was out of surgery shortly after 11:00 AM and went to recovery before going to PICU. The pacemaker was successfully installed and she has not had any indications of bleeding or infection. She was on morphine yesterday and a bit on Thursday but has been only been given baby Tylenol with codeine on Thursday evening. She has been eating today and has had bowel movements and wet diapers which are great signs that she is recovering fully. The cardiologist was in today to adjust the settings on the pacemaker and will do so again on Friday morning at around 7:00 AM. She may need some further medication (a beta-blocker) to correct the long QT interval if it shows up on the EKG tomorrow.

Thank you all for praying and continuing to pray for us. Thank you especially for those of you who called us in the days leading up to the surgery. I have learned some things from this experience. It doesn't matter how routine a procedure may be when it is your child or you it is not routine. The support and love expressed by family and friends can make an incredible difference. This is not a lesson I will soon forget. I especially want to thank those of you who offered to be there while Grace was undergoing the surgery. Not personally having family in the area, your willingness to be there with us was a blessing that I will always remember.

With Love and Appreciation,

Dave

Soli Deo Gloria