Monday, February 19, 2018

Loop Recorder Plan


Hey there! I never know how to start these updates. After re-watching some good old episodes of The Office, Michael Scott has informed me that I should always start with a few jokes. We'll just do one for now. Here goes...
What is the best thing about Switzerland?
I don't know, but the flag is a big plus!
😄

Okay, okay, back to business. We had our appointment with the elecrophysiologist to look into getting a Loop Recorder implant for Ramona. We learned a LOT during that hour. What they are ultimately trying to figure out is whether the episodes she had were caused by an electrical problem or a pumping problem. The Loop Recorder will be able to record irregular heart activity and hopefully help answer this question.


The Loop Recorder. Image courtesy of Google.

What is a Loop Recorder? It's a small device implanted under the skin that "listens" to heart activity, and, when it hears something irregular, takes a snapshot of the previous and next 5 minutes of activity. We can then transmit the recorded activity directly back to the doctors using a transmitter that we will keep at our house. We will also have a button (kind of like a garage door opener) that will stay with Ramona that can be pressed when/if we observe her having the symptoms she did during her episodes, which will make sure it records at that time.

Putting the device in is supposed to be a simple, out-patient procedure with partial anesthesia. They'll keep a close eye on her heart rate during the anesthesia to make sure it doesn't drop too low, and, if all goes well, we should be able to go home the same day. We are scheduled for this procedure on Wednesday, February 21. She is due for another echo this month, too, so they will do that at the same time.

The doctor we talked to said he isn't worried about this procedure at all. The only thing he might be concerned about is what we might learn from it. If we find that there is an electrical problem, we might need to evaluate whether it is severe enough to warrant a defibrillator implant, which is a MAJOR surgery in little ones. He told us all about it, and yikes. There are a lot of serious risks and complications that can go along with it, too, so we don't want to mess with something like that unless it is absolutely necessary. If we find that there is a pumping problem, we might need to look at the surgery that would carve out part of the heart muscle. Also yikes, and also something we don't want to mess with unless absolutely necessary. 😩 I'm sure there are a lot of things to consider when it comes to deciding what action to take and when to take it, and we're grateful to have a great team of doctors we trust to lead us along the way.

Of course, we followed up our appointment with lunch at Chick-fil-a.
I feel like they should probably hire Ramona as a spokesmodel. :)

So, for now, we just do the Loop Recorder implant and wait to see what we can learn from it. We feel good about this procedure and are relieved that we might be able to find out what has been going on with our Sugar Baby. Better the devil you know than the one you don't, right? And, other than those few incidents, Ramona is doing great, which we're always grateful for.

I think that's it for now. Oh! And a little good news, we were able to take a make-up trip to visit the girls' Grandma in Florida!!! Thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which allows me to use unpaid time for Ramona's appointments, I was actually able to scrounge up a couple of vacation days to make up the trip we sadly had to cancel at Christmas time. I'll share some pics after the prayer requests! :)

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Ramona's Loop Recorder procedure this week! (Feb 21 @ 11:30 AM)
- A quick and easy recovery without too much discomfort.
- Our doctors (for the procedure and for what to do with any information we learn)
- For Ramona's heart to be healed

Thank you for continuing to pray for our sweet Ramona! Now here are even more pictures than usual. :)

Books, toys, coloring, and water painting for our plane and car rides!

<3

And that sums up how she felt about the beach.
Hated the sand. Hated the water.

LOVED sitting in the shade eating as much
watermelon as she could get her hands on!

Cousin fun!


Ice cream with Uncle Messy!

We visited a local aquarium. Daisy did NOT like the sharks.
Ramona got to pet a snake, but I didn't get a picture of it. *facepalm*


We even got to go to Disney for 2 days with Grandma!
The Magic Kingdom really is magical!

We bought a fan for Ramona so she could cruise cool and comfy.
We ran that baby all day and had to replace the batteries on the second day.
(Pardon the sleepy eyes, this is right before a nap :) )

Not her favorite ride. But also not her least favorite.

Mo LOVED seeing this Donald, but hated every other
character we saw, including another Donald.

SO EXCITED TO SEE ANNA AND ELSA.
She could hardly stand it. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Elsa made it snow!

Animals outside our bedroom window! Ramona loved to go on the
balcony and check them out first thing every morning.

We came across some singing, dancing bears, and she was
so excited! Almost as excited as my chins.

Daisy loved the characters from a distance, but didn't care for them them up close. :)
Side note, we loved this restaurant! Good food, tons of characters, and they even gave
the girls some new toys after letting us wait inside until our reservation time to keep
Ramona out of the heat. We had a great time here despite the crying :)

Watching a parade.

Ramona actually did like Olaf, but mainly his carrot nose.
Daisy almost liked him, but was scared when he didn't talk.

Daisy is definitely a fan of flying! You can't go wrong with juice,
pretzels, and PJ Masks!

Cuddling the new toys she got at the character restaurant we went to.

This big sister is getting too big too fast.


In this world you will have trouble. 
But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33b

4 comments:

  1. Aww just loved seeing you and your family having fun at Disney!! Sheri showed me some of the pics! So glad you got to go!! Continued prayers, hugs and love to you all!! Praying everything goes as smoothly as possible on Wednesday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! We were so glad we got to spend time with her and the rest of the family. Daisy had fun with those little cousins :)

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