February 7, 2009

There is no place like home!!!

Day 18 - We headed to the cardio-specialist yesterday and had some interesting but nicely surprising twists when we asked for his professional opinion. He said while Caitlin has PFO (hole in the heart) more often than not it is the better medical advise to look to other simpler options for it rather than surgery since the surgery itself carries multiple risks we are not sure we want to consider taking. When you look at Caitlin and realize what a miracle it is she survived and what a miracle it is God was there to black it out of her memory - we aren't sure we want to take any risks with her health and neither is she. The cardiologist spent a great deal of time discussing Caitlin's health history in detail with her and said that there are some things to check out based on her history and will be running tests to determine the best option especially in regards to her syncopy and PFO. He also explained that in these situations they can only confirm the specific problem about 10% of the time but the tests will rule out life threatening problems which is definately a plus and hopefully guide us to the best option for her care. Caitlin really felt comfortable with him and really likes the possibility of looking at non-surgical options for controlling her health situation. We headed home after a light lunch and she quickly fell asleep from exhaustion. They told us at dismissal she would be doing a lot of sleeping especially this first week and as glad as we are to have her home with us we respect her need to sleep and will catch up on things later.