This week, we spent a few days back at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Kirsten was scheduled for cardiac catheterisation. On her last check up before Christmas, during the scan, the doctor found that Kirsten's pulmonary artery to her right lung was restrictive which was causing some back flow of the blood leaving her heart.
We had to get to the hospital for 8:00am which meant Kirsten had to have had her breakfast by 6:30am (she's normally asleep til 7:30). We then had to keep her happy until she was due to go for the procedure. Keeping a 15 month old happy when she's hungry and tired isn't easy, but, she seemed happy enough wandering up and down the ward until it was time for her operation (she certainly entertained the staff).
She went down to theatre at 2:00pm. I have to say, having her sitting on my lap while she was given gas to put her to sleep was a bit more difficult then her just having the drugs through a cannula like last time. We were told the operation would take one and a half to two hours, but in the end it took closer to three hours for her to come back from theatre. It turned out that the procedure was a bit more complicated than had been expected as they had to put a stent in her pulmonary artery and use a balloon to dilate the branch to the right lung.
Unfortunately, Kirsten will now need another procedure when she is about double her current weight to adjust the stent.
By 10:00 the following morning, Kirsten was wandering up and down the ward again as if she had had nothing done. We were back home by 4:00 the afternoon following her operation.
We can't fault the care of the staff at BCH. Kirsten was well looked after and many of the staff remembered us from our previous visit. It was nice to see so many friendly faces.
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