I'm so glad that I'm the type of person that makes decisions easily

Anyone that's reading this that knows me well is probably sniggering at the title of this post. I am so not the person described in the title of this post. That is precisely why the beginning of this week was rough...that's an understatement!

I called Dr. Ross' secretary on Monday and told her that we had pretty much decided to go with the plan of having a cut off date for surgery, and if I wasn't called, postponing till july and going to Ontario as planned. 

She said that actually she just had a date cleared by Dr. Ross 10 minutes before. A date that she could offer to me...a date...for me...but then she said it would be tight for me to still go to Ontario as planned. The day was May 21. 4 weeks and 3 days before we were scheduled to go to Ontario. Wow. That is tight.

She assured me that she would not give away that date until I called back to let her know what I had decided. I had until Tuesday afternoon to decide. Wow.

The end of that call signaled the start of a flurry of pros, cons and what ifs that would plague me through the rest of the day, evening, overnight and all day Tuesday...until literally I picked up the phone to hand over my decision. Derrick and I chatted and chatted and flip flopped about dates Monday evening. All night long I dreamed about weighing the pros and cons and trying to make a decision. I never did make a decision in my dream...

If I didn't take the May 21 date, there was no option at this point for even a cancellation to happen any earlier. So basically, take May 21, or schedule the surgery when we are back in mid July.

We were starting to lean towards the July date. There were no huge reasons why, but there seemed to be a lot of small reasons pointing that way. The biggest reasons for having it in May were that simply, it would be done and over with, and we could try for another baby earlier. Going the July route...we know for sure I will be healthy enough to travel (we had also considering moving our trip to later in the summer), we can use the cheap flight we already have booked and consider that in itself a blessing and gift, we will be able to visit with friends from the US that are only available if we keep our trip as planned, Sara won't miss school at all...the list goes on...

In the end we decided to wait until July for surgery. It may slightly taint my trip because I know what I will have to face when I come home...but surgery has been dwelling my mind for months now, so that would be nothing new.

Dr. Ross' secretary doesn't have the schedule for July yet, but in past years Dr. Ross has concentrated on pediatric surgeries in the summer, so as far as she knows he will only be doing my type of surgery once a week, on Wednesdays. To give us time to fly home, do laundry, pack up and go to Edmonton, the first Wednesday I will be available is July 16...Jacob's birthday. I had my angiogram on Sara's birthday, and probably surgery on Jacob's birthday. Weird!

I will post when I hear any more news about a for sure date. It's so nice to be able to plan our trip now!!

ahhh...lime

Me, my honey and the color lime...how can I not post this??

maybe...

Derrick and I have been thinking the past couple of days about something.

In order to be well enough to go to Ontario after surgery, I will need to have surgery about 5 weeks before hand. That means anytime before May 17th. We are thinking...maybe...that if I don't get called before then, we will take my name off the cancellation list, go to Ontario and have a nice trip, and schedule my surgery for when we come back...beginning to mid July. The only downfall is that trying to have a baby is postponed a couple of months.

That's our thoughts. I will have to make up my mind soon. We'll see how the next few weeks play out...hopefully I will get called and just get it over with!!

to the girl who had surgery april 9th

I don't know who you are, but I know that you were ahead of me on the surgery wait list for April 9th. I know that you have a young family like me, and were eager to get your surgery over with. That's why you chose to take the April 9th date, even though you had just returned from a vacation. You surprised Dr. Ross's secretary with your decision. Then she felt bad for giving me false hope. She really didn't think you would take it! I would have too, if I was you.

At first I felt sad that I didn't get the date. It would have been SO nice to get it over with so quickly. But then Derrick reminded me that I should be happy for you. So, I am.

You were in my thoughts and prayers a lot on April 9th. I hope that everything went well for you, and that you are recovering quickly. I pray that you heal quickly and that you and your family can cope well during the recovery time.

God bless you and your family!

the possibilities...

...for surgery dates. That was what I wanted to find out this week. It would help a lot to have a better idea of when surgeries are, to prepare for possible cancellations.

I called Dr. Ross's very friendly secretary to find out. He is going on holidays for the next 2 weeks and will be back in surgery on April 28. So, that would be the first possible cancellation. If I got the facts straight, he does 2 surgeries/day, 4 days/week, sometimes 5 days/week. He does 4 adult congenital surgeries/week.

Surgeries are scheduled in 4 hour blocks. That's the total time it takes to prep the patient, do the procedure, and completely clean and sterilize the OR to be ready for the next surgery. So, maybe the actual procedure would take 2 hours??

I will have at least 2 days notice to come for surgery. I need to attend a pre-admission clinic the day before surgery, so I need 2 days notice.

It's good to have a better idea of when I may be called. And I can relax for the next 2 weeks and not get butterflies in my belly everytime the phone rings!

supremely freaked out

Dr. Ross's secretary sent me a package with information about surgery. I was reading it as I was eating my lunch today, and now am, as the title of this post states, supremely freaked out.

I know that heart surgery is major, of course, but I never put thought into the specific details about what to expect as I recover. I just thought, I'm young and healthy, I will recover quickly.

Did you know that after heart surgery your breastbone may "click" sometimes? This is because it is healing after being broken, and it's rubbing together. Ewwwww!!! 

When I wake up from surgery I will have a tube down my throat to help me breathe, 2 tubes in my chest to drain chest fluid, and a catheter.

As I recover I may have neck, back or leg pain.

As I recover I have to do deep breathing and coughing exercises, even though it will hurt a lot. I have do deep breathing, then a big cough. As I do this, I have to hold a pillow on my incision to support it. Nasty.

Oh, and as a final kick...I will probably be constipated after surgery and need a laxative. One of the prerequisites for being discharged from the hospital is that I have to poop before I go. Lovely. Sorry to talk about poop...

Now you can understand why I am so freaked. And the things listed here are not nearly all the things I read about in the nice little package. Sigh...what am I getting myself into??

a very weird week

We were planning to go to Sherwood Park this weekend, but may have to stay home because Jacob is quite sick. Anyway...surgeons usually like to meet their patients prior to surgery. So I thought I would see if he would like to meet me while I am in Edmonton. Dr. Akhtar's office gave me the number to reach the office of Dr. Ross, my surgeon.

I called and had a nice chat with the secretary, who happens to book all the surgeries. Dr. Ross is scheduled in the OR for the next 2 weeks, so it wouldn't have worked out to meet with him. I asked her if my surgery had been booked yet. She said no, but it would probably be in June or July. She then asked if that was ok with me. Huh???! I didn't think I had a say in when I would like to have surgery! I explained to her that the sooner the better because we want to have another baby. She said that usually out of town patients can't come in last minute, but would I be able to? I said definitely. She said that would help me to get in quicker. Yay!!

She said that she was checking to see if there were any cancellations...and  said she had an opening on April 9!! What??!!?? Wow. That's soon. She had to call others that have been on the waiting list longer, but if they couldn't take the date, then she would call me back before the end of the day Wednesday. It was Monday, and Wednesday couldn't come quick enough!!! She never did call, so another lucky patient got the spot. My nerves were frazzled for those couple of days and everytime the phone rang my nerves would tingle from my head down to my toes!!

Hopefully another date will come up soon...

a strange kind of fame

I never thought I would find fame in a medical journal. But that's the kind of fame I have found.

I, Patient A, will be starring in a medical journal...because the heart defect I have has never been seen before. Never. It isn't in a text book or medical journal. They have seen similar anatomy to mine, but not this specific defect.

So, soon I will be famous...at least in the cardiology circles!