Playing Catch Up...Again

Tardy. Story of my life. It's May 22nd...we met with the surgeon on May 6th...the dash between is a blur.  BUT...I will claim I MEANT to do the late post because my procrastination prevented me from doing a daily blog post with the updates. No joke...the plan changed daily...for which my children blamed me...interesting.  I've evidently got some mad skills.

Chris and I headed up to Iowa City with the Z's, Renee, and her real twins, Isaac and Ally...their mission, which they chose to accept, was to occupy Wild Man while their mom did her medical interp duties. It was comical to see Zoe's face when Renee got in the truck...dread personified. HAHA! Every time we take a trip with Ne-Ne, things get ugly for Zoe. We decided, then and there, we better do something just for fun very soon, or Zoe is never going to trust Renee again! :)

To save yourself from boredom, I won't go into all the details like I normally do...see, another plus from procrastination! I'm a giver...what can I say? Suffice it to say, everybody in the hospital now calls Zane by name, Zoe avoided sedation for the day, and Chris endured his favorite hobby...pitching tents in doctor's waiting rooms. Just to be clear, when I say waiting, I mean WAITING. Our appointment was at 10. I'm pretty sure we didn't see the doc until after 2.  For reals. I just kept telling myself that we'd be grateful for his thoroughness once it was Zoe's turn in surgery. By 2, I was pretty much chanting that.

The visit was fairly uneventful...Dr. Davis just told us that he believed the "normal" procedure would work, although Zoe's condition is like nothing normal.  They aren't able to say the typical, "The last 1000 kids like this were repaired with 95% success rate!" There aren't any others like her. But it "should" work. Sigh.  He also talked about that pesky valve. There's no way to know what they'll do until they get in there. Best case scenario...they stitch up the valve to allow it to function properly. If it's damaged too much, they'll have to replace it with a mechanical valve...something provided by Wilbur, I believe.

We tentatively set the date for the following Wednesday, May 15th, then headed home. We'd already changed the date by the time we got back to Burlington, and it continued to change on a daily basis. Not a fan...again my children blamed me. Mom gets the shaft...period. Trying to coordinate all of our schedules was maddening...especially with Zoe's potential for a downward spiral at the spur of the moment...but life continues...even though we'd like to push the pause button for a little while. The most frustrating part was finding out about major conflicts with big events which would've swayed the surgery date had we known. We tried to roll with the punches...yours truly did not roll smoothly. My ride looked more like bumper cars, smacking into mac trucks, rolling down the bumpiest gravel road Iowa has to offer. Nevertheless, we decided to stick it out with the surgery being May 21st...and dug our heels in to prevent another change.

Then we got a phone call on Monday...Dr. Davis was no longer available for Zoe's surgery...he resigned last Friday. Ummm...

We were supposed to be at the hospital first thing Tuesday morning for pre-op tests. Therefore, we had to decide immediately whether we go with another doctor we've never met, postpone the surgery after having a visit with the doctor, or start the whole process over again at a different hospital. It was another high stress day, to say the least. In the end, we consulted Dr. Edens and said, "If you're comfortable, we're comfortable. I'm the least qualified person in the room to make heart defect decisions...so I defer." He was good...that makes me good. I'm a simple person...who's very complex...but wants simplicity.

Yesterday, I met the surgeon that God knew would be touching my sweet daughter's heart today. When you try to process that, it's beyond overwhelming. I just keep thinking, NONE of this is a surprise to my Father...not one schedule conflict, not one heart ache, not one...or a million...doubts.  He knew...He cares...He provides...He heals...and ultimately, He comforts so tenderly. 

And now...we wait...again.