On Thursday, November 9th, Helena had a cardiac catheterization procedure done at the hospital. We got to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit before 6am and could not feed her anything before she was sedated and intubated. She was taken to the catheter lab and the procedure took 2 hours. The team went into her groin with a tube that traveled up to her heart and took pictures with a fiber optic camera. They also checked the oxygen level in all four chambers of her heart and found that she was doing well. Based on this procedure, the doctor said that she will have to have her next surgery in 1-2 months. So it could be either before Christmas, or after.

After she was weened off sedation, she woke up and was extubated. But we had a scare that evening because she had a really bloody stool in her diaper. None of the doctors on her team had seen anything like it after a catheter procedure and they checked for internal bleeding. There was no internal bleeding and her hemoglobin and platelet levels were fine. I suggested it was an allergy, but the doctors dismissed it. However, the next morning a gastrointestinal specialist was called and he said that her stools looked like a typical milk allergy (my suggestion the night before). Her cardiologist realized that her stool was extra bloody because the sedatation drugs irritated her already irritated stomach lining.

The doctor told me to stop eating or drinking all dairy products. Helena was put on a soy-based formula for 48 hours while I cleanse my system of dairy products. We bought some soy milk for me and tomorrow morning I will start giving her breast milk again. Hopefully we have discovered the right allergin and she will be less fussy in the evenings and start to gain weight more rapidly.

That was our adventure. She hated every minute in the hospital and she is very happy to be home.