Our trip to Omaha went well and we are home! We arrived at about 8am and were out of there by 11:30am. Ava was a trooper through it all and is very happy to be home.

To all of you that were praying about Ava’s sedation, it went super. Ava’s tummy was empty so when the ‘sleepy’ drugs were put through her NG tube, it upset her tummy a little and she threw some of it up, but then was fine. It started taking effect within five minutes and she even slept through most of getting an IV. She slept through the entire MRI and only started moving her feet at the very end. She woke up very happy and is still a little sluggish, but is acting great.

She did end up getting an IV put in so they could put a contrast dye through it for the MRI. She only had two pokes, but who’s counting!?

The MRI took about an hour and I was able to sit in the room with her while it was being done. They gave us both big headphones to wear to protect our ears from the noise of the machine. I have to admit, I took a little nap while I was sitting there.

We did get to talk to the doctor before and after the MRI. He was actually supposed to be on vacation today, so it was a blessing that he was there at all. We will not find out the complete results for a couple days, but he was able to tell us a couple things. One thing (and the main reason we did the test in the first place) is that he was able to get a look at her left pulmonary veins and they are attached and there does seem to be at least some blood flow through them. The second thing is that he could tell just by looking at the pictures that Ava’s right ventricle has a lot more muscle mass around it than normal. Just to make that more clear, the right ventricle in a normal heart is about 1/3-1/2 the size of the left ventricle and in Ava’s heart they are about the same size. This shows that her right ventricle is working a lot harder than it should which means that there is some pulmonary stenosis. That said, the doctor does not believe that she at risk for heart failure at this time and he may recommend that we take her to a Cath. Lab to get an even better idea of what is going on. But we will not know fully for a couple days.

We continue to wait on the Lord and enjoy our smiley, silly girl. Thank-you for all your prayers, we could definitely feel them today.

Rejoicing day by day!

Jessica Johnson