Jess was 7 months old when we took her to the Prince Charles Hospital. Walking through those doors was scary but also a relief - finally it was going to be her turn.
The paperwork was done and we were taken to the ward, full of babies and children who had heart defects. Large black and white photos and stories of survivors and those who had passed away, greeted us.in the hallway. This ward was new, it was foreign, it was confronting...we did not know hearts, we knew skulls and faces... but it was also comforting as well as we knew that this was the place where she needed to be to have her broken heart fixed.
We thought Jess being admitted would mean that she was to be operated on...but a doctor arrived and said that he wanted to do another echo cardiogram (ECG) to check that she was serious enough to be operated on. If she wasn't she would be sent home. My heart was in my mouth. No God was this some cruel joke?
I held Jess down on the bed and held my breath at the same time whilst I watched the monitor with the flashing red and blue, not knowing what the doctor was thinking. Would they send us home after we had made it this far?
The doctor declared that yes she was serious enough to be operated on! It would be happening the next door barring no emergencies which would take precedence.
The morning arrived. Our two dear friends from church arrived to pray and offer support to us.
I remember carrying Jess down to the operating theatre and handing her over to the nurse. Then the doors closed and we had to walk away. I actually felt at peace that God would look after her. For all of these months I had prayed that God would miraculously heal her so she would not need the surgery. This did not happen, but I really felt that Jess would be healed through the hands of expert surgeons and be safe.
We saw Jess 4 hours later in PICU. She was attached to all sorts of monitors and leads, and IVs, looking so small and vulnerable. She had a large cut down the middle of her sternum. The surgeon was very pleased with how the surgery had gone. No complications. It had been a success.
I was so relieved to see her. We were on the other side.
I asked to see the social worker who kindly arranged a bed for me to stay in for Jess's duration in ICU and then the high dependency ward. This was an answer to prayer as the social worker said that I actually lived too close to the hospital to be eligible for the bed but as I cannot drive she saw the need for me to be there.
I left Jess late that night and went back to my room and cried - all that pent up emotion came pouring out.
The next morning I arrived early back in ICU to find that some of her IVs had been removed and to the announcement that she was well enough to go to the high dependency ward. This in itself was a miracle. She did have a partially collapsed lung which was a common occurrence after being on the heart/lung bypass machine but everything else was great.
Up she went back to the cardiac ward into the high dependency ward. She was there for a couple of days then went back into her room. Jess needed some physio to help her lung recover but apart from that she recovered very quickly. After 9 days in the ward we went home.
We saw a marked difference in Jess. Her energy levels were elevated and she was stronger.
© 2012 by Jenny Woolsey
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I have tears in my eyes. My baby is 3 and she must go for heart surgery on the 13 December 2012. I'm very nervous and just trust in God that all will go well.
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