Little Miss Shae

One of the hardest things that I have EVER had to go through is watching my little girl suffer. Shae was scheduled for her over-the-phone pacer check on March 2nd.....but because her grandma and mommy are both a little air-headed at times, we missed the phone call from Life Watch. The appointment was scheduled for Tuesday the 9th. The appointment went as usual and she went to school. I hadn't thought much about it other than her attitude had REALLY been bad the past couple of days, but I just attributed it to the bug we had over the weekend and/or the anxiety of moving. I got a phone call later that afternoon that was NOT good news. One of her pacer wires (the ventricular wire) had become fractured and we were going to need to come in for surgery the following day. SURGERY had always been the dreaded word for Shae----but she always knew it was going to happen.....just not this soon. We packed our bags and headed down to Primary Children's on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a LONG day of tests and x-rays and WAITING. We stayed the night and had surgery to replace her pacemaker on Thursday morning. Wednesday night was a LONG night. Her heart rate kept dropping into the 30s. I am not sure what "normal" is for a sleeping child, but we sure had everyone up here nervous!!! After about the fifth time of the nurse coming to wake her up I started to get nervous too. But it was all ok---I woke up and told Justin, "Man, that was a ROUGH night!" And Shaelee said, "Mom, why did you have a rough night?" Her and Justin slept through most of the commotion---glad someone got some sleep! Wow....has it been a LONG two days. She had been a real trooper. I am so proud of her. Mom was the lucky on who got to ride on her bed down the hall to the cath lab where the surgery was performed. When we got to the end of the hall where mom was not allowed she rode on the back of one of the male nurses. While they were prepping her she kept asking the nurses if they were going to cut her open with a knife. Broke a couple of their hearts. They replaced the pacer battery and the leads and placed the leads on the inside of the heart where they will be more protected. Its amazing how things have changed in the last 6 years. Her new pacer will be even more perfect for her. We should be headed home soon---every nurse that comes in gets the "when am I going home? Its SO BORING in here!"