Libby had her heart catheterization yesterday and everything went very well. Libby may not say that because she was not happy to be there at all! She's already had so many bad experiences at the doctors' that she started crying and screaming before they'd even done anything to her. It was hard to see her so upset and especially hard when they took her from me and I heard her screaming all the way down the hall. I wanted to go with her while she was anesthetized, but they wouldn't let me. Aside from her unhappiness, things couldn't have gone any smoother. I want to thank everyone for their prayers, because we definitely saw the results! The procedure showed that the repair of her heart should actually be easier than what they thought after her echocardiogram. It appears that they won't have to create a connection between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery because it already exists. It is just very narrow where it connects to the heart so they will have to widen it. She may still have to have another surgery sometime later in life, but it's not definite.

Libby experienced no complications from the procedure other than some bleeding from the catheter site in the recovery room. They had to apply pressure to the area for about a half hour. She was very upset, screaming and crying and that seemed to be causing her to bleed more so they gave her a narcotic and she calmed down almost immediately. (I wish we'd had some of that on the flight from Hong Kong:) She spent about an hour and a half in recovery and was then moved to the children's floor. They told us that she would have to lie flat for 4 hours and then when she got up and ate something we could go home. I was worried that she wouldn't do well with lying flat for so long, but she actually slept the whole time. In fact, after the 4 hours was up she was still in a deep sleep. I tried to wake her up over and over again, but with no success. She finally woke up about 5:30 and even then she was very out of it. The good news is that during that time I got to watch at least 6 hours of the Cake Boss and you know how important that is!

After 13 hours at the hospital we were finally discharged at 7pm. Libby was so happy to get home and she's back to normal today. We have an MRI of her heart and head scheduled for the 22nd and then we will schedule her surgery. Her cardiologist told us that she would likely spend 5-7 days in the hospital recovering from the surgery, but it varies with every child. Since she's been living with low oxygen saturation for so long it may be hard for her lungs to adjust to healthy levels.

I will try to add some pictures soon. I have misplace the cord for my camera, but I'm sure it's around here somewhere.