Tuesday.. seattle doctors

So last night I hopped on the medical flight with Ethan to head to Seattle. It was a very different experience and one that I hope I wont have to do again (except to get him back to Montana of course.) They loaded him up in a travel incubator that was the size of a fish tank! We then went down to the emergency room where the ambulance was waiting for us. The ambulance took us to the airport where the medical flight was waiting for us. It was so hard to watch them load our baby up into the airplane! Once he was settled in I boarded the plane only to find that the plane was VERY small. Now I was expecting small but not quite this small. I could put my arms out and reach both sides of the plane! I was very exhausted so I some how managed to fall asleep on the way there. Unfortunately I woke up to very bad turbulence, lightning, dark clouds outside and the nurse in front looking back at me and holding onto Ethan in his incubator. She told me that we were just coming into Seattle and that it was going to be another 10 minutes. I thought 10 minutes! You have got to be kidding me! We are going to die before 10 minutes are up! So I hung on to the handle and prayed... prayed for Him to glide the plan in smoothly. Seriously 1 minute later it was smooth sailing. We had a good rest of the flight and landing.

Of course then there was an ambulance to take us to the Children's Hospital. I walked through the hospital like a zombie. I was completely exhausted and still worried about my baby. I was kind of expecting to see a really nice hospital and I found that I liked the hospital in MT better! The NICU in MT is only 6 months old though so it is super nice. I have also found that I like certain nurses better than others (and I have been lucky to get those nurses most of the time lately) and I was very thankful that one of my favorite nurses was the one to fly with us. It made things a little easier... if that is possible! I can't tell you how many people that I talked to said that I looked exhausted and worn out. Well thanks people... do you know what I am going through! Do you blame me?!?!?! Well they got him all settled in and then they told me they had a room for me to stay in for the night. They described the room as more like a closet with a bed... that is exactly what is was. It had a twin size bed, a nightstand, and a mirror. It was nice though because I was able to sleep just upstairs from Ethan.

This morning Mark and my mom flew in to Seattle and our soon to be brother in law Matt was at the airport waiting for them. The 3 of them met me at the hospital and we went down to see our little baby. Mark's aunt and uncle came to visit us at the hospital as they live only 6 miles from the hospital. The doctors were not sure what their plan was until later this afternoon. Once they looked at the tests and consulted with many doctors they decided that yes the surgery is what needs to be done. (Yeah... we didn't think there was a chance they weren't going to do the surgery either... but they don't make for sure decisions until they actually see the baby) So we were explained how the heart works and what is wrong with Ethan's heart about 3 times over again. It was hard to hear it the first time let alone 3 times! Ugh then the cardiologist was talking about the possible things that could happen because... well he has to. Then he said "so what is the chance of survival?" My heart sank! What!?!?! What are you talking about! Don't tell me you just made me fly to Seattle for you to tell me that you are going to do surgery on my baby and the chance of survival rate is going to be high? No! This is not happening! Well then he continued and said that his chance of survival is very high... like 99% and that they do this surgery a lot and that most babies they do it on are smaller than him. Yeah... and to think back on how I was worried I was going to give birth to a 10 pound baby... I am so glad that he was growing ahead of schedule inside of me. So the surgery is about a 25 minute surgery and they will do it right there in his room. Mark of course asked if we could watch (yeah like me, the fainting girl is about to watch someone cut open my baby and mess with his heart... I don't think so!) but they told him no since the room is so small. Tomorrow is going to be very hard and unfortunately they told him a few days after the surgery will be rough days but after that he should start moving forward. Moving forward is definitely what we need right now.

We did get out of the hospital for a short time today since Matt was there to drive us around ;) Seattle is very green. Lots of flowers blooming everywhere! I hope to get out for a walk to take some pictures while we are here but I think that will wait until Ethan is done with surgery and on a positive stride. Mark noticed 3 things today about Seattle... people wear goofy hats, men wear bow ties and there are french people walking around... I am thinking I will try to snap a few pictures of this while we are here for him ;)

So tomorrow we will be up early and to the hospital but we don't think his surgery will happen until early afternoon. They can't set a for sure time for some reason... come on they do it on Grey's Anatomy why don't they do it here? ;) Please don't send flowers to the hospital as they can't go in Ethan's room, I won't be able to take them on the plane, and we are praying that our stay here is short ;) Please keep us in your prayers and we will post how the surgery went as soon as possible tomorrow.