Back in the hospital a bit early

Posting from the hospital again.  Dr. Shetty called early this morning (Sunday, 9/1/13) to let us know there had been an "incident" during the night where Muriel's heart conductivity was out for 3 and a half seconds.  She had been having these pauses fairly regularly, but not for this long.  Dr. Shetty mentioned she had decided on a threshold of 3 seconds, and that Muriel had crossed it, so she wanted us in the hospital for observation until her surgery.

She didn't mean to alarm us, and wasn't concerned that we come in that very second, so we agreed to admit ourselves by evening.  We spent the day making arrangements, cleaning the house, and packing.  Muriel was checked in about 6PM tonight and the poking/prodding began.  Its now almost 10PM and they are preparing to take blood and set an IV.

We have seen nurses, residents, and a cardiology fellow so far.  She has a new (wireless) monitor that allows her to walk around, at least for now.  She has already made three circuits of the floor, visiting the other patients are nurses along the way.  Discovered the floor has a play room with a gazillion toys.  She sampled it:

Practicing for her xylophone recital

Mainly we are here for them to watch for recurrent pauses in her heart rate, and to be able to immediately intervene if it is out for a prolonged period, or even stopped altogether.  We are in the right place for any such event to be efficiently and expertly handled.  There is a possibility of her receiving IV drugs to stabilize things (though I neglected to ask what drug, or how it would help the conductivity problem).  There is a strong chance that her surgery will be moved up to this Thursday.  We should know a lot more in the next few days.

Happy girl!

Megan called the Ronald McDonald House, where we have stayed for the past two surgeries, and by a miracle they had one room left.  I checked us in a few hours ago so we have a base during all of this.  We could easily be here two or three weeks.