Roadmaps

Yesterday was another step completed in the process of pre-surgery tests and appointments.  Even with details and practice, preparing a 5-yr-old for a CT scan can somewhat be a lost cause.  And no matter how much she agreed that she wouldn't freak out, it happened.  It wasn't a freakout of colossal proportions (such as, say, pre-K booster shots of 10 months ago), but it was right on the border between "I think I can, I think I can" and "If you touch me or look at me I might be forced to bite your head right off your neck." When it comes down to it, this girl hates IVs, and can you blame her?

Waiting in the Imaging Department

Silly faces to pass the time

Once she felt comfortable enough, she said she saw Tinkerbelle in the CT machine.  Seems like it would be a suitable place for a fairy, no?  A few quick practice runs and some breathing exercises and she was finally good to go.  Once it came time for her to follow directions in being still and holding her breath, "Super Camdyn" kicked in and she did amazingly.  That's my girl.

Why all these preliminary tests?  Because Camdyn's surgeon needs the best "roadmap" of her heart and chest that he can get...through X-rays, Echocardiograms, Cardiac Catheterization, and now the CT scan.  Hopefully the CT scan will be enough, as opposed to doing a CT-A (CT angiogram).  The CT uses x-ray radiation, but the CT-A looks specifically at the blood vessels.  This is all information he needs in order to make sure that when he reopens her chest, he knows exactly where to go and what's behind.  After 5 years, there's quite a bit of scar tissue built up, and veins begin to grow in different places.  It will take him about 4 hours just to get to her heart before performing the actual procedure itself.  This is the most time-consuming part of the surgery.

They don't normally perform CT-As on young children because it's more time-consuming...so for now, we wait and see if we receive a call to schedule one.  And we'll be off to Pulmonology at Children's on Tuesday to have the last remnants of this cough of hers checked out.

Please be in prayer for Camdyn and her feelings of anxiety and fear.  Please pray for her to be in perfect health, with not a stitch of a cough in sight.  Please pray for us to have wisdom in discussing things with her as well as with her doctors and nurses.  And please pray that there will be space for us to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, so we can be a hop, skip, and a jump away from our Sweet Pea while she recovers in ICU.