Cardiology Appointment

Oh wow, it has been a while since I updated this...but its good in a way that I have not needed to up date it which can be a good thing as nothing has really happened. She had her cardiology appointment today and it went well. She was great for all the tests and I told them about Anniek complaining about her heart racing so they said that they would do a Holter Monitor...after she is in school so that she is busy while it is being done. Her valves and everything look good...so they will see her again in 6 months.

Disney On Ice

Anniek won 2 tickets to go see Disney On Ice through the library here in the city. She doesn't know that she is going yet as it is not until next month. We read almost 100 books as it is 1 ticket per book and she loves it when we read to her.
Anniek has her cardio appointment in March. I am starting to get a little nervous about it because this is the first "real" appointment since she had the stent put in. She had an appointment a few weeks after the stent was put in to check on it and it was the size it was supposed to be, but she has grown quite a bit since she had the stent put in and I know that they can only go in once, maybe twice if they are lucky and make the stent bigger before she will need to have open heart surgery again...which I hope will not be for a long time.
At school we got her a wiggle cushion as she has having difficulties with sitting still and at her desk when it was time to do work. We discussed with the teacher what might help and decided to give the wiggle cushion a try and asked the Doctor in Toronto for a note saying that she needs the wiggle cushion for the school...she now has one for both at school and at home for during dinner...which has helped her stay at the table longer. She is also eating enough that we were able to cut out 1 can of formula per day which is awesome!!! So she doesn't need to drink any at lunch hour...she can just eat her lunch that gets sent to school with her.

She Made The Paper!!!

Anniek stays at a respite home different times so that I get a break for a couple days. When Anniek was there this time they called and asked me if it would be okay to take Anniek out on the new wheelchair bikes that they got and if it would be okay if the local paper took a couple pictures and included her in the article. I said that it would be fine if they did that. A few hours later they called back as the lady from the newspaper wanted to do a phone interview with me and double check to make sure that it was okay that Anniek be in the paper and on a video clip on their web site.
The article is HERE and the video clip is HERE.

Cardio Check-Up

Anniek had her cardiac check up following her stent today. The cardiologist is very pleased with how things look with the stent and said that she will see Anniek again in 9 months. I am happy that it is not a year...but that is because the cardiologist said "So I see Anniek every 6 months usually right?" so I was like yes, hoping it would be 6 months...and she goes "okay then I will see her again in 9 months". So I am glad that I didn't correct her and tell her well actually you have only seen her every 9-12 months.

Discharged!!!

Anniek was discharged at 10 this morning. She did not want to get the IV taken out because she didn't want to have the tape taken off from the IV, she wanted to go home with it as she knew the tape would hurt coming off. The nurse told her that she can't go home with the IV still in...so does she want to stay in the hospital. Anniek said "YES" because she didn't want to have the IV taken out...so that back fired on the nurse a little bit. After the IV was finally out we were able to get things ready and head back to London. We stopped for a little bit at a rest stop so Anniek could walk around as suggested by the nurse on the way home. Traffic was clear so it did not take long to get home. We both glad to be at home and sleeping in our own beds tonight.

Cath Day

Today we were supposed to check into the hospital at 9, which was no problem at all. I was suprised that Anniek got up at 7 seeing as she was awake 4-9 yesterday with only an hour nap. I gave her a bath until 8 to keep her occupied and seeing as she can't have anything to eat or drink so that seemed to avert her attention from wanting something to eat or drink.
We checked in just before 9 and they gave us a room, Anniek was not too happy that she had to get washed with the special soap there. It was a good thing that I brought 2 of Anniek's favorite movies as they didn't call her back for the Cath until about 2:30 and she didn't get in for the bath until 3:00 pm!!! During that time she only asked for something to eat/drink 2 times which I thought was amazing!!!
The Cath went very well. They were unsure as to if they were going to put a stent in or do another balloon dialation. The doctor said that the last time he did the balloon dialation he dialated it to 7mm and when he went in today it was 6.5mm, so it has gone down since the last time...how quickly it went down we are not sure. He ended up putting a stent in and said that they had should be able to stretch it open a little big when she is older if needed. Anniek pulled through like a trooper and it only took 2 hours for the prodecure (scheduled for 4 hours).
We are spending the night at the hospital and will hopefully be discharged tomorrow morning.

Pre-Cath Day

Today was a busy day, we left London at 4 in the morning incase traffic was bad...we were hoping that Anniek would fall back asleep in the car on the way to Toronto, unfortunatly that did not happen. Apperently we missed ALL the traffic and got there in 2 hours...an hour and a half BEFORE the clinic opened. We hung out at Timmies for about an hour and Anniek had her formula and watched the little train that goes along the ceiling.
When it was close to 7:30 we went up to check into clinic and get the blood work and x-ray forms. We went down for blood work then stopped back up at clinic as a form was not filled out with what test was needed, then back down to blood work for another poke...Anniek was not happy about that but LOVED the Tinkerbell puzzle she got. Then we went over to x-ray, finished that quickly then up for an ECG and to the Echo appointment, then back over to clinic. We got everything done pretty quickly as well as one of the studies signed for by noon! Then we started with the other study and took a lunch break then finished the study ahead of the scheduled time. I let Anniek play in the Canadian Tire Play Park that she was asking to play in for about an hour then we headed over to the hotel.
As a BIG suprise for Anniek my sister came to Toronto and met up with us at the hotel we went swimming then out for dinner.
It was a pretty good day and as of now everything is still a go for tomorrow!!!