May = Heart Surgery

Well we have our month of May mapped out (in pencil).

On May 10th, we are leaving Brynlyn for a few days with Grandma Sugar (my Mom) and taking the girls over to California for a few days. We are going with 2 other families and we are taking all of the kids on a Royal Caribbean Baja Mexico cruise. It sounds very glamorous, but our exotic destination is Ensenada, Mexico. We are really excited to go though. It's just a weekend cruise and the travel rate we got was a "couldn't pass it up" type deal. We have adjoining rooms with windows in our cabin on the 6th floor. And so somehow our good friends talked us into going with them and their kids. Besides, it is Mike's 36th birthday on May 11th and Mother's Day on May 13th. So we thought, what the heck, let's do it.

You'll see in just a minute why it's essential that we GO on this cruise. It is going to be our "calm before the storm" as we found out. We are excited to be able to spend this time with the girls because the minute we get home, we'll be doing so much Brynlyn medical stuff, we felt we owed this time to them.

May 14th, we drive home from California and get home around dinner time

May 15th, we go to St. Joseph's Hospital at 10:00 a.m. for Brynlyn's cardiac catheterization and bronchoscopy scope looking into her lungs. A heart cath is done by inserting a small catheter in the top of Brynlyn's thigh near her groin. It would be carefully guided into her heart and a contrast dye would be injected. After this video, pictures will be taken that would show the way the heart and its major vessels moved the dye in and around her heart. This would give surgery and cardiology a clearer picture of her heart’s anatomy. She will be under sedation the entire time and we will stay in the hospital for 23 hours following the procedure so she can be observed and recover.

May 16th, get released from the hospital and go home, pending nothing arises that would keep us there any longer

May 17th, Mike is flying to Utah to help his parents move down from SLC

May 18th, Mike drives one of the moving trucks down from Utah

May 19th, Pat and Farrell move into their darling home in North Mesa

May 22nd, Cardiac Consult (big meeting with all of the DR's involved. They will review Brynlyn's cardiac cath and discuss her surgery, along with other upcoming surgery cases. (No, they won't let me go to this meeting. I've already asked. I just think it would be fascinating to be there!!!)

May 25th, Friday
Half Day at school/last day of school for the girls
Katelyn's Kindergarten Graduation at 8:45 which Grandma gets to attend with her
9:00 a.m., Mike and I meet with Dr. Cleveland, one of the cardiovascular surgeons. He will go over the results and discuss the upcoming surgery with us. Then, we walk over to the hospital and get checked in for all of Brynlyn's pre-operation testing: EKG, ECHO, blood work, etc. etc. etc.
Good news is that we all get to go home when we're done and go enjoy the holiday weekend. =)

May 29th, Tuesday, Brynlyn's 11 month birthday, she's scheduled to have reconstructive open heart surgery. They have told us that if she shows ANY signs of infection, they will not operate because it would be too risky. So we will pray and pray and pray for good health during this time so she will be healthy for surgery. They have told us to expect atleast 2 weeks post surgery in the hospital for recovery time. So I guess if all goes well and according to plan, then we should be home by mid-June. Then she will have about another 2 full weeks of recovery before she starts feeling "normal." Everyone is different, but they do say that child recoveries are often relatively quick in consideration to adults.

I told her tonight that if Regis Philben can have triple bypass surgery and be back on his feet 6 weeks later, then she can do it too! ha ha Either she'll grow up loving or hating Regis. =)

Anyway, that's our schedule for the month and it's going to be a wild ride. Or actually, we're just getting back on this roller coaster ride of life with Brynlyn. We'll keep you posted and let you know any change of plans, etc.