The little time we have...

Hi all! I'm home! My stay in the hospital only consisted of 6 days, amazing. My personal goal was to get out the following Sunday, but I wasn't sure that was realistic. I had heard 5-7 days, a week, 2 weeks. This is the break down of my stay. Day of Surgery  Tuesday August 12, 2014 I had told the anesthesiologist before surgery that most of my anxiety was waking up with the breathing tube in. I'm not sure if he took that into consideration or I really just didn't need it because Chris said it was removed before he even saw me for the first time and we had been told multiple times that that's how he would see me first, was with the breathing tube still in place. My anesthesiologist was amazing. I was scared when they first wheeled me back to the pre-op holding area. He just kept reassuring me and telling me everything is going to be okay and I was going to make it through just fine. He even promised me. I'm going to have to find that man's name and send

Here I sit 8 hours before my open heart surgery. I've waited to write another post since I've been having multiple emotions over the past week or so. I've cycled through fear, excitement, hope, uneasiness, and anxiousness, just to name a few. I've even wanted to call all my doctors and tell them I've changed my mind, I can't go through with it. Then I remind myself that this has to be done, I'll have to go through it at some point in my life, might as well be now when I am healthy and strong. I expected to be a mess today. Even though I feel like I've gone through today with a deer in the headlights look, I am pretty content, at ease. Elliot only spent about an hour and a half at daycare today while I did my pre-op testing. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her since she won't get to see me while I'm in the ICU. I've talked to her as much as I can about mommy staying in the hospital. I've tried to get her excited about diff

On Thursday we met with my surgeon for the last time before the day of the surgery. I am terrible at asking questions. I always forget them during the visit and remember them after I have left the office. So, for the past couple of weeks I had made little notes on my phone with the "notes" app. My phone goes with me everywhere, so every time I would think of a question I would just whip my phone out and type it up and save it. I had about four questions. Yes, for the past few weeks that I had known of this appointment and this being one heck of a serious surgery I had thought of four whole questions. And they were all answered in a whopping five minutes. I thought they were pretty good, too. Thought they sounded pretty knowledgeable. Like: "Will this surgery ease the workload my liver has taken on" (Yes). "Will a wire closure for the sternum be used" (Yes, stainless steel wire closure, that will remain in the sternum). "Will my daughter

I know I have briefly mentioned my heart condition in my blog before. I told how with my pregnancies there was a very small chance of it being passed down genetically. Fortunately that didn't happen. I am the only one in my family that has this or any type of structural heart defect. It's called Transposition of the Great Arteries, now referred to as Transposition of the Great Vessels. It's a congenital defect and there is no explanation for why it happens at this time. The defect happens while the heart is developing in the very early stages of life. The abnormality is very severe and is not compatible with life. So shortly after the baby is born he/she will need open heart surgery to correct the abnormality. This is a normal heart. This picture shows the circulation of blood. Below I have a picture of a normal heart compared to a heart with Transposition of the Great Arteries. Here you can see the structural differences. This defect does not allow the oxygena

Two weeks from today I will be on the other side of my open heart surgery. I have moments of great excitement for the time to be here and then moments of shear fear of what could go wrong. I guess this is all normal for anyone facing a major surgery. I made the surgery date in early July and it feels like time is just moving at a snail's pace. I am looking forward to feeling better and being able to do things that I couldn't endure before. Maybe I'll be able to run? Maybe I'll be able to sit on the floor with my daughter without my legs falling asleep almost immediately. Maybe climbing a hill won't be so difficult and I won't have to stop every 10 feet to catch my breath. I keep telling myself if 18-month-old me can do it, 30-year-old me can do it.