We Made It!

For the first time in Olivia's lifetime we made it a full six months between appointments.  Every other time they've tried to spread them out like that the girl decided she needed to whip up some symptoms and head to PCH early for a tune-up.  But we made it!
So, Livie had her first full, non-sedated echo today and did absolutely fantastic.  I've been prepping her for a couple weeks now by telling her about the magic wand that takes pictures of your heart and by golly, if that girl wasn't excited than I'm an eskimo pie.  Every time we'd get in the car she'd ask to go to the "Gocker's" aka doctors and when we went to the grocery store mommy was in big trouble.  So today, Livie was very happy when we walked into the building and ran into that wall of sterile smell.  Next to the happy girl was a mommy who was trying to suppress the panic that tends to rise when that smell hits her.
So, the magic wand took pictures while Livie sat pleasantly still.  She pretended to nap for a second but mostly watch Tangled.  She got nervous for half a second when they put the stickers on her to monitor heart and such but that passed quickly.  She did beautifully for her EKG, sats, blood pressures (she gets pressures on every limb and getting her arms done usually TICKS the girl off but she did just fine this time) height and weight, the car ride, dinnertime, bedtime.  Basically, the girl tucked her terrible twoness away for the day and Super Livie showed up.
Gocker Pinto, aka Dr. Pinto, came in and was very pleased with everything.  Livie's function is back to normal after last years little failure scare, her sats are great, and other than a slight increase in fatigue Livie is golden.  Dr. Pinto wants to stick with our original plan of a early summer Fontan.  Even though Livie is doing great she doesn't want to chance an emergency Fontan.  With Livie's history of surprises, I am totally ok with not waiting.  We want to make sure this thing is planned, planned, planned and for those who know me, you know this is good with me.  One other piece of possible good news!  We might (big might) get out of doing a pre-Fontan cath.  Where Livie had a cath about a year ago, Dr. Pinto is going to see if we can get out of it.  For those of you who don't know, standard procedure includes a cath before a surgery to get a good look at things they can't see as well in echo.  Anyway, Dr. Pinto doesn't know if the surgeons will be okay with a year and half between cath and surgery but she's going to try for it.  I would be thrilled about that.  Caths may be fairly minor but they still scare the bejeebies out of me, not to mention I HATE same day recovery.  They don't know heart stuff like they should and last time pumped Livie full of so much fluid it took her days to pee it all off.
So, Dr. Pinto sent the order through to scheduling and its only a matter of time before we get the call.  Dr. Pinto is fine with us picking a date that works for us so we're going to shoot for as close to school letting out as possible.  Ella's last day is Liv's b-day so if all goes as we hope, we're looking at the first week of June.  We just wanna get it out of the way so we can spend the rest of the summer recovering emotionally for us, and physically and emotionally for Livie.  It could be a long summer as it is fairly common for effusions  to plague post-fontans due to the new blood flow so recovery in the hospital may be longer and the likelihood of being readmitted because of them is higher.  But, we have been warned and I am determined to get through this with a positive attitude.  If Livie is smiling all the while I sure as heck can.

I do miss Dr. McCandless a ton, but it hasn't taken long for Dr. Pinto to steal a piece of all our hearts.  She was so sweet with Livie and patient with Ella (she HAD to come with us and was trying to be the center of attention the whole time.)  Dr. Pinto was the doctor who diagnosed Livie and had to give us the worst news ever, so I'm glad we get to give her the opportunity to give us good news, hopefully for a very long time.  And for those interested, I asked if she was planning on leaving anytime soon and she said no.  Dr. Pinto is here to stay and if it were up to her husband, they'd never leave Utah.  Keep your fingers crossed that his wish comes true because we wish for the same!