Drama...Status Quo

Hold on tight people, as we take another loop on the rollercoaster.

As mentioned, Zoe's oxygen sats lingered lower than anticipated the past few days (with and without oxygen.) Several phone consults with cardiologists, near and far, brought us to the ultimate question:

Is it safe for Zoe to fly?

Zoe's doctors were concerned that her decreased sats were due to something other than her underlying infection - a clot in her shunt, narrowing of her pulmonary artery - both of which are very serious complications. The thought, as of Tuesday night, was to admit her back into PCH and perform a cardiac catheterization prior to her flying back to Philly. If the cath results were not promising, Zoe would not be cleared to fly and her Glenn would take place in Phoenix.

Zoe must overhear many of our conversations because she responds quite well to threats. Yesterday, her sats improved.

This morning, off to the cardiologist we went, pulse ox in hand. Zoe is becoming quite popular at her cardiology office - like Norm from Cheers. Throughout her appointment, we monitored her sats and discussed her clinical presentation. With the exception of her lowered sats, she is doing very well. While in the exam room, Zoe's cardiologist from CHOP called my cell. She presented Zoe's "case" to the surgical team at CHOP this morning to obtain their opinion. Dr. Spray feels comfortable allowing Zoe to fly, given her oxygen sats continue to trend upwards into the 80s and we have oxygen on board. He also mentioned that he prefers her cath to take place in Philadelphia, if possible.

Long story short, Zoe was given the thumbs up to fly sans cath. Her sats need to remain elevated (80-plus) over the next 48 hours. There was some discussion of bringing Zoe to CHOP for admission directly from the airport. Since we arrive at midnight, we will take her to the ER for admission, only if we're concerned - which doesn't take much by the way.

With this good news, of course, there had to be another wrench thrown in the mix. While we were sitting in the exam room this morning, we received a call from the oxygen company, providing Zoe's oxygen for the flight. They stated they never received the approval from our doctor's office to ship her oxygen. Seriously?! Over the next 2 hours, we (cardiology and us) scrambled to be certain we had oxygen ready for Thursday. And we do.

Once in Philly, Zoe's schedule is as follows:

Friday, Sept 10th: Pre-op testing (chest xray, ekg, echo, ultrasound, blood tests)
Monday, Sept 13th: Cardiac Catheterization
Tuesday, Sept 14th: Surgery Day (extra prayers for mom, dad and zoe, please!)

Now, besides a nap, I need to pack our things because this family, hell or high water, will be in Philadelphia in 48 hours!

We will continue to keep ya'll updated as the Lihn journey continues.