Waiting waiting waiting...

     
          Brett and McKenna slept on and off last night, with some periods of being awake due to checking vitals and little roommates crying.  :(  I slept ok in the hotel, but kept waking up wondering how they were doing...  She was awake at 3:30am, so she got to have one last bottle of milk before being cut off at 4am.
         This morning, she has been drinking lots of juice and trying to play.  She watched an Elmo movie for a while, and we read lots of books.  They took her off the heparin drip at 8am, and started her on IV fluids at 10, so she had two hours of freedom from wires and tubes.  We played in the playroom and walked around the halls for a while, taking advantage of the time while we could!  She was actually trying to run down the hallway, lol.  That's our girl.

         Its 10:30am, and she just fell asleep in the crib, which is good timing since she is connected to the IV anyway.  We expect them to have us go down around 11:30am, with an estimated surgery start time of 12:00.  Dr. Newberger's assistant Annette stopped in this morning to check in.  Dr. Newberger (McKenna's cardiologist) just got back from India this morning, and she will be in tomorrow.  Annette is making sure that her echo gets done today, so that Dr. Newberger can make a decision about her meds for tomorrow.  Depending on the results of the echo, she will hopefully either be on asprin and plavix, or just asprin.  Either way, no more lovenox injections, so that is a MAJOR celebration!
        Dr. Taghinia expects the surgery to take 4-5 hours, due to the need for precision in separating the muscles, ligaments, veins, etc. and getting the grafts prepared and in place.  The echo will happen post-surgery, so we are anticipating not seeing her until around 4:30 or so.
         Lots and lots of waiting.