The Cath

I have never been so scared in my life.  With decreased function on the table all these horrible scenarios were racing through my head and I spent most of yesterday sick to my stomach.  I never realized how much transplant scared me.
But, as most of you have heard by now, that is not going to be the next chapter in our story.  Hooray!  When we went back to talk to Dr. Gray after Livie's cath and he said, "She did great and everything looks good!"  I about died of happiness.
Here's the rundown of Olivia's cath.  Her glenn is perfect.  Yay!  Her stent (placed in July) is perfect.  Yay!  Her numbers to check function were good.  Yay!  All he found was a couple collateral in the in her lungs and coiled them off.  According to the anesthesiologist the as soon as Dr. Gray coiled those Livie's sats improved a bit.  So hopefully that'll take care of the lower sats.  These coiled off collaterals should also solve all our problems.  While Olivia's numbers were good they were on the higher end of good.  The only one I can remember was the pressure in her left ventricle needs to be under 10 and hers was a 9.  Higher than in the past but not scary.  The coiled collateral should help those numbers too.  They should also solve the larger liver issue.  Basically, we are really loving the coiled collaterals.  Easy fix.
As Dr. Gray was speaking with us he did mention a few things.  1. Olivia does look like she's following the early fontan path.  He's pretty optimistic that the fixes he did during the cath should buy her another year to grow and get ready.  2.  Dr. McCandless mentioned to him that she wanted us to meet with transplant.  This of course was news to us and scary but since Livie's numbers were good we have avoided that meeting for now.  3. At home treatment of the decreased function will not be difficult.  She will remain on the medications she's on (enalapril and aspirin) and if her sats don't improve then we will be getting a new darth vader (aka oxygen concentrator)  4. Dr. Gray is fairly positive that this will help her all around.  Olivia has been off and on grumpy lately which is not her norm.  I don't just mean toddler grumpy.  I mean she has been having moments where she is incredibly upset for no reason and nothing calms her.  Dr. Gray said that she should now be feeling much better and hopefully that'll help that.
I am pretty sure that this cath was what Olivia needed.  Normally, after a cath she has needed oxygen afterward but she was satting just fine afterward.  She slept most of the day yesterday but woke up enough to scarf down some macaroni and cheese and strawberries.  She's a little swollen from all the liquid they pumped into her plus what she slurped down herself but is quickly deflating.  She's back to herself and seems to be feeling better than she has in the past.  She's still a little groggy while she works on getting the rest of the sleepy drugs out of her system.
We never did get to meet with Dr. McCandless which was a total bummer.  We were hoping to snap a picture of her and Olivia before she heads of to California next month.  Unfortunately she was just so swamped with fetal appointments and all the crazy stuff that comes with moving.
All in all it was an incredibly exhausting couple days but well worth it.
Oh, and prayers work!  First off, we got the best news we were expecting!  Second, Rainbow Cafe switched up their menu and blueberry pancakes with buttermilk syrup are now Monday and Wednesday instead of Tuesday and Thursday!  New this week!  So after two lousy nights sleep (Olivia didn't sleep AT ALL the night before the cath and then I slept in the hospital with her last night) I was able to at least have an amazingly tasty breakfast.  That's a good way to celebrate getting your appetite back.
So, thank you all for the prayers.  We really are incredibly lucky to have you all in our lives.  Andrew and I wouldn't be able to do this without you.  Even the seemingly small things you all do for us mean the world to us both.  Love you all!  And celebrate a little tonight for us.  We won't be able to.  We'll be sleeping!