Not again!

To say that the last two days have been a whirlwind would be an understatement.  After three ambulance rides and an airplane (sound familiar?), this update comes to you from Charleston.   Yes, we are back in Charleston and I am working on three hours of sleep for the last 48 hours.  Mix that in with not sleeping Monday night due to Reese's stomach virus and you have one exhausted Momma!  

The story began in an all too familiar way...  Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 we left home to go to two routinely scheduled doctor appointments.  One was for a vaccine and the other for a follow up echo.  To make a long story short there was an issue getting a good O2 reading at the Pulmonologist's office where we were getting the vaccine.  The Dr was concerned so knowing that we were going to Cardiology after our visit he called the Cardiologist on call and asked him to take a look at Brinkley.  They too had a hard time getting a good O2 reading and we proceeded with the echo.  The echo was concerning so we got an EKG (we just did all of this two weeks ago).  The EKG was concerning and we were sent back to PICU at GHS in heart block.  

We arrived at GHS about 4pm and Dr Raunikar arrived soon after to prepare us to be sent back to Charleston.  We expected to be airlifted around 8pm and then it was pushed to midnight and then 3am.  We finally started moving around 3:30am and Dr Raunikar stayed with me the whole time.  Have I mentioned that we have the GREATEST Cardiologist EVER!  We are beyond blessed!  Brinkley and I flew out around 4am and arrived at MUSC at 5:45am.  A friend picked me up about 6 am and took me to her house to sleep for a couple of hours.  

Around 9am the nurse called and I was up and headed back to the hospital.  I met with Dr Kavarana and got the plan for the procedure.  After scans and tests he had decided that Brinkley's Pulmonary Artery needed to be repaired again as it had narrowed even more since the first surgery.  This would be followed by placing the pacemaker.  Due to the scar tissue from the surgery in December the procedure took significantly longer than expected.  

Brinkley was taken back for surgery about 1 pm and Dr K started the procedure around 2pm.  The procedure was complete about 8:30 pm and we saw Brinkley about 9 pm.  He is still heavily sedated and will remain that way at least over night.  Dr K said that this procedure was more difficult than the first due to the scar tissue.  We are now back to watching drainage, so please pray that he will drain quickly and that there will be no chlyus drainage this time around.  

As you can imagine, this is not how we intended to spend Valentine's Day.  As my sweet friend pointed out to me this morning we can always remember that our sweet Brinkley got his broken heart mended on Valentine's Day.  My only request is that we don't spend anymore holidays at MUSC!