The flight was quick, the nurses were friendly and Ellie did
great. We got to the hospital around 11 pm; I got to wait in the waiting room
while they got her all transferred over. At around 1 am they finally let me in
to see her. The hospital has what they call family rooms. It consists of a
couch bed, a T.V., a table and bathroom; thankfully they let me stay there for
the night.
When they told me Ellie needed surgery I assumed it would be
right away. I was wrong. They wanted her to grow a bit, which is fine. I wouldn’t
want to do surgery on a 2lb baby. The tricky part is her heart. When a baby is
in the womb, there is a valve that branches off the aorta that goes to the lungs.
After a baby is born that valve closes. Well with the coarctation in Ellie’s aorta,
which means a narrowing, they opened that valve back up with a drug call prostaglandin
to help relieve the pressure in her aorta. The prostaglandin makes you feel
like you have the flu, and because she has a heart condition they can’t feed
her very much, so getting her to gain weight was a slow process. Poor girl.
That first day being in Salt Lake was a long one. Thankfully
I have a great friend, Dawna, who came to visit me while I waited for my
parents to arrive. Being alone in a strange hospital with a sick baby is
terrible. I am so grateful for my friend and my parents and my awesome brother
and sister in-law for coming and being with me while my husband was in Idaho
with Jack. My parents made it around 2pm. I couldn’t have been happier to see
them.
I introduced them to Ellie; it was my dad’s first time
seeing her. She already has him wrapped around her finger. Since I didn’t know
I was flying with Ellie, I had only the clothes on my back and the toothbrush
and phone charger Kevin and I got before I had to leave. So thankfully my
parents and Dawna took me shopping. Bless Dawna’s heart she bought me a new
outfit and outfits for the babies. She really is the greatest friend a girl
could ask for. We went to stay with my cousin Nicky that night and my brother
and his wife came from Rexburg and brought me clothes and such from home.
We spent time at the hospital with Ellie, did a little
shopping and did the tourist thing. Sunday came and as much as I hated to
leave, I had no clothes left and I missed my husband and Jack, and as far as I
knew Ellie was not having surgery for a while.
We also needed to get packed and moved out of our apartment. What a
whirlwind.
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