D Day !

This morning after a restless night for me and a good nights sleep for Eloise , even with a 24 hr B/P machine on we arrived on Walrus Day Ward for Eloise's Coronary Angiogram, intra venous ultrasound and biopsy. To say I was anxious would be an understatement, two months of worry and speculation ! 

       

 Eloise is seen by the anaesthetist and checked out by her nurse. Surprisingly despite being the oldest she is the first to go to theatre at 8.30am. Getting her to sleep was a calm affair as she still had her cannula in situ from yesterday. While Eloise was in theatre I sat in Costa for an hour, stomach pains and nausea grip me, I hate her being away from me.

      An hour and a half later I can go to the recovery room to be reunited with my precious, brave girl. Eloise is always really grumpy post op and so my kiss on her brow was met with a frown and rejected ! We saw her consultant briefly he was happy with her coronary arteries, they looked good and the two rejection episodes haven't caused any thickening of the arteries. He said he would see us on the ward later. Eloise had a dressing on her neck from the biopsy and a clear dressing in her groin from the angio puncture sites.

    Eloise was then transferred back to the ward to recover. Friends visited but Eloise felt nauseated and tired so we left her to rest while we grabbed lunch. A two hour sleep made Eloise feel much better and she managed to eat, drink and take pain relief and her medication.

       Her consultant then saw her, the procedure went extremely well very straight forward, her coronary arteries are "peachy" really healthy. Heart function and pressures are all normal. The pericardial effusion is probably jelly like so unable to drain caught in adhesions. If her biopsy comes back clear we will slowly reduce her Prednisalone by 1mg to get her off it completely. Her Tacro range will also be reviewed after the biopsy result. The high heart rate could be explained , M thinks some nerves may have grown back to Eloise's transplanted heart as this can happen over time giving her a lowered heart rate but the two rejection episodes could have caused these tiny nerves to have "died" off again leaving an elevated heart rate. He may consider starting her on a medication to lower her heart rate at some point. We can go on holiday and "normal" life can resume once more. We will see Dr Martin in 6 weeks in Bristol and then come to GOSH in 3 months for outpatients. 

       We then saw the Transplant Psychologist for a casual chat, always good to have that link incase Eloise develops any issues, her only one being cannulation that just makes her upset. So to formulate a plan for that.

        After 4 hours of bed rest Eloise got up and walked around, her two cannula's were removed and discharge letter and advise given. She is now back in the transplant flats resting. We have made the decision to travel home tomorrow as she is sore and exhausted right now. It is also peak time to travel. 

     So so far the results are encouraging so we wait for her biopsy result, blood results and the result of her 24 hr B/P monitoring. But for now we are relieved it's not been an easy few months !