| Angel has had a very busy
year. It started 4 January 2007 with open heart surgery!
Angel went to the Children's Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska to have a hole
in her heart repaired. The hole was located in between the two
lower chambers of her heart and was found when she was four months
old. The doctors had hoped that the hole would close on its own,
but in the fall of 2006 at a regular checkup, they found enlargement on
the left side of her heart. Fearing permanent damage from the
swelling and the possibility it would increase, they made the decision
to repair the hole.
Angel visited the hospital on 3 January to meet
her doctor, Dr. Duncan, and so he could go over the following morning's
procedure. Angel adored Dr. Duncan and all the nurses that were on
staff that day as she visited the ICU and the recovery floors that she
would be on during her stay. To her excitement, after the visit,
her Uncle Billy Ray arrived to stay with her throughout the whole
hospital visit!
Uncle Billy Ray!
The next morning, we went to the hospital and
all of us were nervous. Angel was not too happy about all
the poking and prodding that she received (Darn those needles).
She handled it well until the sedation kicked in and she couldn't blow
bubbles anymore!
The surgery went well and was over in about
four hours. The doctor said that she was still groggy and that she
would be taken to ICU where we could be with her as soon as
possible. He also told us that they ad found the cause of the
enlargement of her heart. The valve flap just above the hole in
her heart had been caught by scar tissue where the heart was trying to
heal the hole on its own. The flap was unable to close and that
allowed extra blood to go into the left chambers of her heart.
They were able to carefully free the valve flap when they repaired the
hole.
Pics from left to
right: Angel post surgery with all the monitors and tubes hooked
up. Angel hugging Missus Kitty after surgery. Angel just
after they unhooked some of the major monitors.
We arrived in time to see her fully settled in
and not yet awake from the sedation. It was scary to see all the
tubes and monitors on her! There was a nurse in the room
monitoring her at all times and it was a good thing! She slowly
woke up and was happy to see us...especially her Uncle Billy Ray!
She then immediately pulled out her nose tube and tried to get up, but
eventually the residual meds in her system calmed her down and sent her
back to sleep for a while. The nurses came in to introduce
themselves as they had a chance. They shared with us a story from
just after surgery when Angel was waking up a bit from the
sedation. They were working to get her on the monitors and to get
her all ready for us to arrive. They said that the first thing
Angel said to them was, "Where are my panties?" She
absolutely would not calm down because she learned that she was going to
be put into a diaper! She told them that she was a "big girl
and only babies wear diapers!" The spoke with the doctor and
because she was getting so upset about the thought of wearing a diaper,
he agreed to let her use a catheter. She then demanded her panties
again, so someone told her one of the male nurses stole them. The
poor guy never was able to get on her good side after that. She
refused to talk to him and gave him the evil eye every time he came in
the room until she left the ICU. That was even after the other
nurses told her they had been kidding and gave her the sack with all her
pre surgery clothes in it! The girl holds a bit of a grudge.
Pics from left to
right: Uncle Billy Ray watching over Angel. Dad and Uncle
Billy Ray waiting for Angel to wake up. Angel finally starting to
open her eyes.
Angel was in ICU for just one and a half days
and then because she was doing so well with no post surgery
complications, they allowed her to move up to the fifth floor where the
pediatric heart patients went for recovery. They transported her
up in a cute wagon that was padded with pillows. She waved like a
princess to everyone who saw her! She adored it on the fifth
floor, especially once she saw the play room! They had closed the
playroom for the day by the time Angel was moved up there, but she was
so sad that she didn't get to go in there, that they opened it up just
for her!
Angel's room on the 5th
Floor of the hospital.
Angel was released from the hospital just three
days after surgery! She was supposed to be there five to seven
days, but her recovery went so quickly that her doctor allowed her to be
released early. They did a pre release echocardiogram to see the
progress of her heart after surgery. They were surprised to find
that the hole showed no sign of leakage and that the enlargement on the
left side of her heart was already beginning to decrease. They let
her ride from the fifth floor to the ground floor, where we waited for
dad to bring up the car, in the wagon again. So Uncle Billy Ray
decided to take a few minutes to make the wagon worthy of her. He
gave it racing stripes and put her name on it! She honestly didn't
want to leave the hospital because she didn't want to leave the
playroom!
Top pics: Playroom
entrance, playroom, playhouse entrance, inside playhouse.
Bottom pics:
inside playhouse, playhouse ceiling!
Angel recovered at a remarkable pace. Her
pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Kutayli in Sioux Falls, was amazed at how
quickly everything healed and how fast she gained back her energy and
movement. He said that we would have to check in every year to be
sure that no changes occurred with her heart, but he feels that she
won't have any more trouble.
Angel turned 5 on her birthday in July.
She learned then that we would be moving to Nebraska to be closer to
Nana and Papa. That made her so excited that she tried to make us
move sooner! She had a nice party with some of our friends from
church and was pretty much spoiled rotten!
Not long after her birthday, the school in
Howard, South Dakota (where we were living) offered a Kindergarten
Roundup. This was a day where the upcoming kindergarteners got to
go to the school and spend a day to learn what kindergarten was
like. They got to meet the teachers, learn some things, eat lunch
in the cafeteria, and go out for recess! Angel loved it very much
and it made her very excited for kindergarten.
Angel coming home after
kindergarten roundup!
After we moved to Nebraska, Angel started
kindergarten! She loves going to school every day and she adores
her teacher, Mrs. Smith. She is proving to be a good student with
just a few minor issues...she doesn't like it when the other kids near
her watch her work! She won her teacher over completely the day
she wrote a note to her requesting that she ride the bus home with the
driver named Dave. You see we live so far out with no other kids
near us, that they have hired a van driver named, Darryl. He
brings her home from school every day in a minivan. But Angel
really loves the bus and would much rather ride in it. She seemed
to think that if she wrote a note to her teacher, she would let her ride
the bus instead of the van!
Pics left to right: Angel eating her breakfast. Angel
all ready to go. Angel and Daddy on their first day of school.
Angel's trip to school.
Loading in the car, driving with daddy to school (mommy following), and
daddy taking her up to the school building!
Angel hanging up her back pack,
sitting and waiting to go in the classroom, and posing in front of the
welcome sign with her name on it.
Here comes the
bus!
Angel
leaving me behind to get to the house.
Angel also got to have her first emergency room
visit for stitches. She managed to hit her head on the toilet
while pulling her pants down to use it. The blood gushed and we
had to rush her to the emergency room at nine o'clock at night!
The doctor hoped that he could just glue it, but unfortunately she hit
it so hard and just right that he ended up having to put three stitches
in the center of her forehead.
|
The Qualset Family 
