Happy 1st Bday to our Princess

Happy 1st Bday Sarah

We actually made it!!!!!

Its been about a month since Ive updated, so I promise to update alittle more often, time just flies by so quickly and I need more hours in the day.

We have had a massive month - As normal its been a month of highs and lows but its great that we have more high's than lows and talking about in general here, will get to Blood Sugars further down the page!

First event of the month was Sarah perforating her eardrum earning herself a 2 day stay in hospital, for a ear infection of all things

We then took Sarah on a plane trip to meet Michaels side of the family early November, it was great to get away for a few days and Kevin, Jess and Cooper got to spend a few days with Nanny Caton. It was a little quiet though with only Sarah with us, Here Sarah is with her Great Nanna, a photo to treasure

We came home and prepared for Sarah to have another Surgery! the day before we left Lismore to come home Sarah started sounding congested and I was optimistic that it was "just a cold" and would pass quickly. However we arrived home and the next day Sarah had an appointment with her Endocronologist, she was sounding quite congested and off her feeds a little but she wasnt that bad I didnt think. We see her Dr and straight away she said to me " She looks and sounds like she has Bronchiolitis, you are going to have to take her to emergency to have her Sats checked and have her checked over by the Gen Med team. Her sats were fine but her feeding was well down so they kept her in for a few days.

This helping in the anticipation leading up to her Heart Surgery. I was far more "relaxed" about it then her other surgeries and infact was more stressed about her Diabetes Management than the surgery itsself!

The Surgery went off without a hitch and after a long day waiting she entered theatre at 230pm, it was expected that the surgery would take about 2 hours. At 430 there was no word but history told me that were always optimistic with Surgery times and had ran overtme on the prevous occassions so we wernt too worried. Finally at 530 we got the call from her surgeon to say all had gone well and she should be in recovery in the next 15-30 mins. So I walked DH to the car as he had to get home to the other kids and came back to the waiting room. However at 630 I still hadnt been called through to recovery so started to worry, I went and rang the intercom and was told they had a few complications getting the breathing tube out and it would be about another hour. I paced up and down that waiting room just taking depth breaths and driving Michael mad with phone calls to try and pass the time.

Finally I got called through about 745pm and the relief was amazing, Sarah was still rather drowsy but she did open her eyes just to let me know she was ok.

The Anesthetist came to talk to me about a few problems they had collapsing her lungs and getting the breathing tube out and to check her stats. She was going well, was on a little bit of oxygen, but her heart rate and resp rate were great. The surgeon had used a local anesthetic at the wound site and he explained that it would soon wear off so they would start a Morphine infusion. An xray man came to check the central line was in the right place and then we headed up to the high dependency ward.

Once up there the cardiac resident and the 2 nurses that were going to be looking after Sarah were getting a handover from the recovery nurse and they suggested I go and get a coffee while they settled her in.

I went downstairs to call Michael and as I was talking to him on the phone I heard what no mother wants to hear. "MET 7West Rm 3" A MET is Medical Emergency Team or commonly known as a Code Black. I raced up to the ward and the hospital were calling michael to let him know what had happened. When I got up there, Drs were everywhere. Her heart rate dropped into the 60's and her Sats into the 80's. She scared the living daylights out of me. They turned the Morphine off for a few hours then turned it back on at a much lower rate. One lesson learnt is that Sarah is extremely sensitive to Morphine.

We came home after 5 days, Sarah is just such a little trooper,

So we thought we were in the clear for her birthday when last week I woke Sarah in the morning for her feed and she was a little out of sorts, she had her feed and brightened up a little. I had an appt that day with her Cardiologist and he had one look at her and sent her around to emergency. I was standing at the Triage desk and she went all limp and floppy and the nurse grabbed her from me and said she is having a seizure. After being assessed they decided she would need to come in for some tests to see if it was seizure activity. She had a EEG done and was booked for an MRI. The EEG didnt show any activity and we ended up coming home the next day without the MRI as there was a 2 week wait on the inpatient list, so we are on the outpatients waiting list. Due to her coding after each surgery they are booking her a bed just in case as it will need to be done under a General.

So the 28th of November finally arrived and what a wonderful day it was. Sitting here now on Monday morning and I can reflect back on the last 12 months, it has certainly been the most challanging 12 months of mine and Michaels life, its been filled with so many different emotions and Ive learnt so much about myself and about the world and how cruel life can be, but Ive also had so many happy memories, Ive seen absolute miracles happen right before my eyes.

I was going to update on how Sarah is going but Ill leave you with a photo of Birth and yesterday and come back later with an update on Sarah herself.