What a difference a hospital makes.

Thursday morning, December 12th, my sister and her kids came to pick up Georgia and me and we once again started the trek down to the Tampa area. I had an appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor who would be delivering Baby Brother. Kathy Arnold, the Perinatal Cardiology Nurse Coordinator, asked if I could be at the hospital a little early so she could give me the tour of the facility.

We were driving and our exit came up and we turned off the interstate to find ourselves staring at a beautiful hospital facility. At the top said "All Children's Hospital" and underneath that "Johns Hopkins Medicine". Yeah, did I forget to mention ACH is a Johns Hopkins Hospital?? We pulled into the Outpatient center and I went in to find Kathy. My sister took the kids to play at a nearby museum while I did my thing.

Kathy is a sweet woman. Probably a little younger than my parents. All smiles and ready to show me around. She showed me where I would be delivering. I couldn't tour the facility because they didn't have any open rooms but she showed me as much as she could. Then she took me to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. See, at ACH my son will not go to the NICU. Since he is a heart baby he will go straight to the CVICU. Wolfson's doesn't have a CVICU. Just a NICU and PICU. ACH has all the above. I met the nurse in charge of the CVICU and she was very nice and welcoming and showed me the kind of room Baby Brother would have. It has everything. It really is something.

We went to the milk depot. ACH has a department strictly devoted to breastmilk. They give me the bottles and the pump (I have my own so I can use mine but they will still give me the bottles and connections) and some barcode stickers and they take care of the rest. I pump, put the barcode on the bottle, take to them and they do the rest. They date it, rotate it appropriately, thaw it the right way. Dispense it when it's feeding time. The whole nine yards. A CVICU nurse orders the milk, the milk depot gets it prepared and lots of barcode scanning later (to make sure my son gets my milk and no one else's) my son is fed. Kathy also said as long as I'm breastfeeding the hospital will provide my meals. They take breastfeeding so seriously and want me to get the necessary nutrition that they will give me meals from the cafeteria for free as long as I'm pumping. Even if it's only an ounce a day.

Kathy then took me to the NICU just simply because that's where the transport bed is kept. She wanted me to see what Baby Brother will be transported in from the delivery room to the CVICU. Here's another glaring difference between Wolfson's and ACH. At Wolfson's the surgery rooms are positioned around the NICU so basically I would deliver and then they would take him through a door and they would be in the NICU. Once in the NICU they would try to stabilize him. Once he is stable Jason would be able to go and visit and take pictures and he would be able to take 1 person at a time in with him to see the baby. At ACH Baby Brother will be stabilized, if necessary, right in the room with me by the Stork team. That's what they call the transportation team. So they get to working on him right away. They have everything necessary on that bed to make sure he is ok. It looked like a mini hospital room on wheels. Once he is able to be transported Jason essentially becomes part of the Stork team and goes with them to the CVICU and will not be asked to leave until Baby Brother is discharged. Now, if something happens and they need to take Baby Brother out to have a cath or something along those lines then Jason will not be able to go into the cath lab. The CVICU allows 4 people at a time to go in. So Jason can take 3 people at a time in to see our little guy. Including his sister! Georgia can only stay in the room for 30 minutes at a time but she is allowed to go in and meet her baby brother. After all, she is the one that named him that.

After the hospital tour I went to the delivering doctor's office and everything went great there. The nurse sat me in a room for a consultation and after asking me every personal question in the world, sexual partners, illegal drug use, and more things my mind has purposely blocked, she surprised me by saying "Can I ask you a personal question?" Uhhhh, you've asked me about my sexual partners and whether I've done illegal street drugs so what on earth could be more personal??? But of course I said "sure" and she asked "Is it true the story I heard about the doctors in Jacksonville? Because if it is I am appalled. Really. I cannot imagine a doctor anywhere telling you there was little to no hope and so they're just going to let you hold your baby until he dies. It is APPALLING!" I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed and I whispered "yes, it's true". She then went on to tell me how very sorry she was I ever had to go through that and there is no "give up" with the doctors at ACH.

If I haven't said it before let me state for the record - I am so pleased to have found Dr. Huhta, his staff, All Children's Hospital and the doctors and staff I have referred to through Dr. Huhta's office. It has been a truly blessed experience. Even the surgeons wanted to try and work me into their schedule on Thursday but when I was finally done with my appointments Dr. Q was still in surgery. He told his staff to make sure I knew he would be visiting with me as soon as I was able to have a visitor. Very humbling that this Doctor would try so hard to take time out of his schedule to meet me.

Oh - I almost forgot. In speaking with the delivering doctor and nurse they let me know I am one of 6 HLHS mothers they are about to deliver. Actually she said they currently have 5 not including me so I make that 1 out of 6 ;) This is something they are used to and have seen on many occasions and it simply doesn't scare them. They only deliver at ACH. So that means in the next month or two ACH will have 6 new HLHS babies. And through my heart network I already know 2 or 3 babies currently in the CVICU with HLHS. This is as routine for them as anything else.

I am truly amazed at the true power of prayer, fasting, the priesthood and the love of a mother and father unwilling to accept defeat.