Heart Cath Complete!

Thank you all SO much for the prayers for Kenzie's heart cath! Everything went REALLY well, and I am thrilled to report that every single one of our prayer requests was answered! Praise the Lord!!! We couldn't have asked for a better experience for this procedure, and we are IMMENSELY grateful for God watching over our precious peanut! It is SUCH a relief to have this done and over with...now if only we could skip her upcoming surgery we'd be gold. ;)

Everything went according to plan, and Dr. Cheatham was able to place her stent without any complications. When they took images from inside, it was obvious that there was definitive narrowing in her pulmonary artery, so the stent was for sure a necessity. It's an adult-sized stent, so it should be able to last her forever, although it might need to be expanded in the future depending on the growth of her artery. That can be accomplished through a cath procedure as well. Thankfully, everything else looked good in there and they didn't come across anything unexpected. Just in case anyone is interested, I put two pics below of what Kenzie's artery looked like before and after the stent was placed (it's on the right side). Pretty neat!

Before

After

As for how Kenzie did with everything, she was a champ, as usual! We call her "Super Kenzie," and for good reason! They allowed us to take her back into the operating room and stand right by her as they put her to sleep, which was a relief to see her smiling as she zonked out (thanks to the medicine they gave her beforehand). After the procedure, she was a little upset as she woke up, but thankfully we were able to hold her right away and she calmed down quickly. By day two, she was back to her usual self--climbing all over everything, walking down the halls waving at everyone, and having a good ol' time. One of our prayer requests was that she would be calm and not afraid of the docs and nurses, and she actually did pretty well with that. Although there was definitely still some screaming and not-so-fun times, overall it was better than usual. She's pretty clingy right now, but that's totally understandable and of course we certainly don't mind some extra holding time with our girl! :)

We came home from the hospital yesterday, and besides being a little sleepy, she's pretty much all recovered! She has some bruising on her neck, on both sides of her groin, and on her wrist where all her entry points were, but they don't seem to bother her. We are so, so very thankful for any prayers said for her over this last week. I will post soon regarding next steps for Kenzie, but for now, it's just so nice to be able to rest and be thankful that God has once again watched over her through yet another circumstance. Below are a few pics from the hospital. Thanks so much for checking in on Kenzie!! <3

Waiting to go in to surgery...

After surgery...

Waiting to be released to go home...