Hair Tourniquets and Pre-op Appointments

Well the past 24 hours have been very interesting.  I drove to Clayton yesterday with Claire by ourselves.  We did great and she didn't even fuss!  We enjoyed spending time with Julie, James, Amanda, and Colby for supper and I decided to give Claire a bath and change her outfit.  When I was putting on her new clothes, I saw some lint stuck to the bottom of her toes.  I started to pull it off and Claire screamed.  I then realized we had a situation on our hands. 

Since we have been home from Duke, my hair has been falling out a lot.  Like almost clumps a day.  Last week I received an email from "What to Expect", a website I signed up for when we found out we were pregnant.  It sends you weekly emails letting you know what to expect that week.  I have been still getting them telling me what to expect after the baby, etc.  So I got one last week that said this:

During shedding season, beware of long strands wrapping around your baby's tiny fingers, toes, wrists, or penis. That can hurt (really!); so if your little one is fussing and you can't find a reason, make sure the culprit's not a "hair tourniquet."

So immediately, I realized that Claire had a hair tourniquet on her toes!  A strand of my hair was woven so tightly around her 3 middle toes that her toes were so red and swollen.  It was terrible!  I called Julie in the bathroom and we tried to break it loose but couldn't because Claire was screaming bloody murder.   So then we enlisted James with the tweezers, fingernail file, and flashlight.  After what seemed like forever, James finally broke the hair into pieces.  We spent the next hour trying to decide if we got it all off.  Her toes were so swollen, it looked like the hair was still cutting into her skin.  We put a cool rag on it and the swelling went down some and we could somewhat tell the hair was gone.  It was very traumatic for all of us.  I am pretty sure that I will now wear my hair up until it quits falling out, that I will check every foot part of Claire's outfits for hair, and that Julie and James have decided that having kids may be a little more scary than they thought.  We were seriously almost headed to the hospital.  They look better today but you can still see the lines where the hair was wrapped.  That thing was on there for good. 



you can see the 3 middle toes that have the lines on them around the base and half way up the middle toe

So these are one of those things that no one tells you can happen with your baby!!!!  So I am telling you now to be on the lookout for this stuff!!!

Amanda, Claire, and I went to Duke today for her pre-op appointments.  Claire had lab work, a liver ultrasound, a chest x-ray, and an ECG.  All turned out well except that Claire had another meltdown during all of these things.  We couldn't console her, couldn't calm her down, nothing.  Amanda and I were worried she was having a tet spell since unconsolable crying was a sign.  But her lips didn't turn blue, so they said it wasn't that.  So once she wore herself out (and us too), she slept through the rest of the appointments.  The liver ultrasound showed that the fluid filled cysts were a little bigger, but the heart surgeon called the liver surgeon while we were there and they said that wouldn't affect her heart surgery tomorrow.

We met with the NP that will be with Claire tomorrow and that will be updating us throughout the surgery.  She gave us more details of how tomorrow would go including that Claire would be there at 7 am and the surgery would probably start around 9 am and finish in the afternoon.  She also said Claire would have the breathing tube in, IVs in her neck, arms, and maybe leg, drainage tubes and pacemaker wires coming out of her chest after surgery, etc.  All the scary details.  My mind has blocked them out for now.  We also met with the anesthesiologist and he explained she'd be put asleep for about 6-8 hours.  Aunt Amanda took some pictures of the day.  I can't look at the needle one. 

Please pray for Claire and all of the doctors and nurses tomorrow!!!!!!!  Thank you in advance!

Love,

The Scott Family