Day 4/5 - Recovery Update

First of all friends, let me apologize for not updating you yesterday. It was another day of waiting and stressful for both Janelle and I. I had told myself that I would get on last night and update, however, my body had something else to say about that and I fell fast asleep quickly after. I know how much you rely on these posts for updates and I will keep trying my best!
Well, what to say? We've been waiting for recovery to happen for the last two days. Most of the doctors and nurses have been waiting along side us as well. Hadley hasn't been progressing as well in the recovery process as any of us had hoped. She is still tremendously swollen (keeping all fluids in her tissues) yet has begun to let more of that go by means of a stronger diuretic. They had to put her back on the pacing machine at about 5:00 this morning due to an irregular rhythm in her heart. The many doctors and nurses tell us that this is normal in the process. So it seems to Janelle and I that when we begin to take one step forward, we take another back in a different way. Very discouraging to say the least. Again, we are also very hopeful for her recovery because she is in the best hands she can be in.
We made it back to the house fairly early last night -- 1:00am --- and were able to get some good rest in the process. We've had a number of visitors as well which have made it nice to relax and just be "normal". Thanks so much to Angie and James for coming all the way from Seattle to visit us. You guys are amazing and we appreciate your support! Uncle Bari, it was very nice to see you and I love how Ella has taken a liking to you. I'm sure we'll have more times where you can get her rowdy and riled up! She loves you tons!
Today we had the cardiologist on shift that was initially on when Hadley came in to the PICU. She has been very helpful and noticed some things that we are hoping will be taken care of ASAP. She was concerned initially with Hadley and some readings they got when she first came in. Those worries sortof subsided when they began to come down and look "normal". However, when she came in today she was still a little worried with her progress (or lack thereof). She really wanted to dig deeper into what may be causing this problem. As we were well aware, one of the complications of this procedure is actually the stretching and thinning of the pulmonary artery. This can cause an obstruction of sorts in that area making the recovery process very hard. The cardiologist thinks that the reason she is storing so much fluid is because of an obstruction like this. So as I am writing, they have taken Hadley into a lab type setting and are doing a procedure to confirm the cardiologist's thoughts. They will run a catheter into her heart (not a surgery by any means) and inject a dye to see how the flow of currently is. If there is indeed an obstruction, then the next step is actually another surgery in which they will go in and create patches for the pulmonary artery that will widen the area that has been stretched. So we are waiting yet again through another procedure, hoping that this is the answer. You might ask why to this statement. Well, because in short form, this is FIXABLE. They hope that with the patches, if this is the problem, that once fixed she will begin to recover at the rates they were hoping she would.
On a beautiful note, we have been able to see her eyes more and more lately. They say it is good for her to kindof wake up and move around a little bit. It will help her to get rid of some of the swelling. They are a darker, beautiful blue color. She will sit and stare at us for minutes at a time with a look of peace on her face. Again, I can't even begin to think of what is going through my little 's mind as she looks at us. It breaks my heart yet makes me smile everytime she gets the energy to gaze into my eyes. I'm the luckiest father on the face of the planet.
We have also gotten many opportunities to play with Ella. She is such an amazing big sister and always wants to go see Hadley. She is so concerned for her and notices now that there is a "band-aid" on her nose. She has a breathing tube in there with gauze around it, covering her nose.
One more short story and then I'll be done. Yesterday, Janelle and I needed to get away from the hospital. We haven't left here or the house since we got here. Her parents heard about a really nice restaurant close by called the Chart House. We were a little under-dressed to say the least because we had to have reservations and there was valet parking! Well, we went in and enjoyed an amazing meal. When we got the bill, the waitress had asked us about Ella (she had come to dinner with us). We told her how old she was and that she was a big sister to Hadley who was in the hospital up here. We just told her a little bit about our story. She expressed her empathy and took the check to get us on our way. When she returned she whispered into Mark's ear that she had given us a "discount" and then quickly walked away. Mark didn't hear her and so he opened up the receipt, gazed at it for a moment, and then seemed confused. He was trying to calculate something in his head. Finally it came to him. The waitress, being the angel that she was, had taken 50% off of the bill for us. She had cut it in half! We all sat there stunned and shocked for a moment and then gracious and thankful for the blessing. We couldn't thank her enough when we realized and just left the restaurant kindof in a daze. Janelle and I agreed that this whole situation has tended to help us put more faith in the fellow man (woman) and we realize just how lucky we are to be a part of this world.

Casey - I will write more when we find out the results from this procedure.