Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Broken Hearts.

Before I get into the Ellie update, I can't ignore the "big" East Coast earthquake from Tuesday.  If you're reading this because we went to third grade together, you remember sitting in lines outside on the blacktop following earthquakes measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.  Let me tell you, friends, a 5.8 on the East Coast is far more dramatic than a 6 or 7 in California.

Ellie hardly noticed the earthquake, and by the time I realized what was going on, I remembered that we have no reinforced doorways downstairs.  Since the quake wasn't bad, no big deal.  I went outside with Ellie afterward to chat with neighbors, and didn't feel any aftershocks.  

I did, however, have the news on the in the background for the rest of the day.  My favorite feature: Why we will not have a tsunami in Washington, DC. 

So having survived an earthquake, we have a threat of a hurricane.  Life is exciting around here.

And now, onto to excitement you've been waiting for.... Our baby girl with a no-longer-broken heart.  We had pre-op on Wednesday, and Ellie sailed through.  The hospital staff kept everything moving as we went to various consults, labs, radiology, etc.  She only cried during the blood draw.

Thursday morning, I woke Ellie up at four to make sure she ate at the last possible moment milk was allowed.  We arrived at the hospital, checked in, went with Ellie to anesthesia.  During the surgical prep, she kept rolling over and trying to crawl off the bed.  Good thing she doesn't actually know how to crawl. 


Handing her over to the doctors was one of the most difficult things we've ever done, although we'd been warned that this would be the case.  We were given a pager, and received a few updates throughout the morning.  "Procedure began at 9:40."  "Eleanor is on bypass."  "Come to waiting room for final update in one hour."

The final, "She did fine" update brought sighs of relief and a few tears.  Ellie's godfather waited with us throughout the day and went out to grab lunch so we could enjoy some "real food."  The surgery was successful, and Ellie is resting at the hospital now.  

She is still in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, but she's off the ventilator and doing fairly well.  She's eaten a little.  We know there may be setbacks along the way, but at this point, we are very happy with her progress.  She's already tried to pull out some of her various wires, which means she is acting much more like herself.  (I think that's why she was extubated a bit early... the doctors preferred doing the procedure themselves, rather than let Ellie pull her own tube.)  Ellie is not a fan of being restrained.  She wants to escape the hospital, with or without doctor's orders and parental supervision. 

We know that many people were praying and sending positive thoughts.  Thank you.  I believe your prayers are being answered.  We know that we have quite a way to go before we can bring Ellie back home, but for now, we are grateful for what we've seen thus far. 


Also, we'll be working hard to avoid future plagues of frogs, locusts and the like.  At least we don't need to worry about tsunamis.