Coil Placed Successfully

Elise's coil was placed in her heart this morning. All went well! Elise is in recovery for one hour (hospital policy), and we are in the Surgery Family Waiting Area at the hospital now. The doctor said he's very pleased with how well it went. He believes she has the type of PDA that gets smaller and larger because it was smaller today than it was when the cardiologist did the echocardiogram a couple of weeks ago. The smallness could also be due to constricting when they put the catheter in.

They have to keep her overnight due to her being born prematurely and still being so young based on her "adjusted age" (aka how old she should really be based on her due date). They'll be watching her for any anesthesia-related apnea.

We haven't seen her yet, but I'm sure she's starving. She last ate at 1:30 this morning. We have to keep her lying as flat as possible for four hours, which includes the recovery time. They have a pressure dressing on to keep the catheter site from bleeding, which will come off at the end of that four hour time period.

We aren't sure yet what the policy is in the pediatric unit, and someone mentioned visiting hours so we're hoping they will only make us leave for shift changes like in the NICU. If they try to say we have to leave for longer, they may have to deal with the wrath of a mommy who wants to be with her baby (though I do understand they can't break policy).

We've taken a few picture already and have the medical images from the procedure so I'll post those soon. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers! The Lord was with Elise, and we are so thankful that everything has gone well so far.

(Oh, and I'm in heaven with the cable television! We only have an antenna at home. Can you say HGTV marathon?)