Surgery is planned!

Well, we got the official word today that Peyton's surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The heart surgeon came by and visited us today and shared his thoughts of how the surgery would go. He is unsure still of the placement of the pacemaker because of how small Pey's anatomy is. He was thinking on the left side just to the side of the stomach, but after speaking with one of the cardiologist they brought up the under arm location and he is considering that. There just isn't much room in her small body to place one. This is even more reason to pray that once the pacemaker is in, no infections take place and set in. We were told today, that most infections can be treated with antibiotics, but for those that can't, the pacemaker would have to be taken out and relocated so that the site could heal. Well, the problem with Pey is that there is no where to relocate.

The plan is still the same regarding the aneurysms. They are just not familiar enough with the one to do anything at this time. They want to monitor and see what happens. The doctor said today that most aneurysms are on the outside of the heart and when they burst, you really should be concerned, b/c that is blood coming out of the heart into the body. With Pey's being inside the heart (right at the center), they feel that if it burst or leaked, the blood would stay contained inside the heart. It would still make a hole (murmur) in the heart that would probably have to be repaired, but shouldn't be fatal. This is still an educated guess and doesn't make us feel very comforted. Because of the lack of information regarding this unique aneurysm it gives us lumps in our stomach's. We were hoping with the last procedure that we would be done with all of Peyton's heart issues. Even after the pacemaker is installed, there is still going to be a long road ahead and lots of monitoring from a team that is 3 hours away from where we live. Instead of being done, it seems we are just beginning again. This undoubtedly creates fear in our hearts. Karen brought up a good point tonight that with all of this, we do trust God that He knows what is best for our little girl, but at the same time, we have real feelings of worry and concern about going through all this again. Selfishly, we want her to be completely healthy and to live a normal life.

Today, was probably Pey's best day since the procedure. She had a lot of energy and did a lot more walking on her own. She was a chatter box to the nurse's and all of her company today. She also talked a lot to people on the phone. She was a trooper tonight as they had to draw blood for her upcoming surgery. She was so scared and was so worried it was going to hurt, but she went in and stayed strong. They were able to get what they needed and Pey got a pretty Barbie Doll band-aid out of it. She was mostly ready, b/c she got to perform the same procedure on a hospital doll earlier today. I have included pictures and a video showing her in action. The doll was cool, b/c she was actually able to stick a real needle into it and install an IV port. We explained to her that this was going to happen to her. This seemed to help calm her down about it.



Thanks again for all of the prayers, thoughts, and support. We hope and pray for this to be over soon so that we can get Pey home and on the road to recovery.