Wednesday (Day 1 with new heart, YAY!)

Finally getting the chance to provide an update.  Wow, what an incredible past few days to say the least.  We got the call Monday afternoon around 5:00 p.m. to say that they had a matching heart, which meant that everything (blood type, size, antibodies, etc) matched with Rachel.  There was still a chance that the heart could be rejected at the last minute when the surgeon eyed it for the first time, so, we were still a little apprehensive until we got the call saying that the heart was good.  They took her downstairs around 1:45 a.m. and called us sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. to let us know that the heart was good indeed.  They called us back around 4:00 a.m. to let us know that they were starting the surgery.  It was around 11:30 a.m. or so when they brought her back here to the PICU but it was not until around 1:15 or so before we could get back here to see her.  And, she has never looked so beautiful despite the 8 or 9 medications that they have hooked up to her plus all of the other tubes and wires.  From the time we got back to see her until we finally konked out due to a lack of sleep, the nurses were constantly doing something, whether ir was drawing blood or changing meds or hooking/unhooking stuff up.  They were constantly moving and most of the time there was at least two nurses in here working on her.  So far, the surgeon said she looks "great" and he is just amazed at the "numbers."  They had briefly talked about taking out the breating tube today but they are a little hestitant given that her left lung was collapsed due to how big her old heart was.  However, this morning, they said the lung has begun to open up a little bit on its own and her chest x-ray looks good.  So for now, they will take it nice and slow and not rush into taking the tube out.  She is progressing like they had hoped she would and so far, Praise God, nothing unexpected has come up.
The surgeon did tells us yesterday that the heart came in at just the right time.  He said that he couldn't explain it and we quickly told him that we could, that God delivered it at just the right time.  He said that was true.  He explained that when she was on the table, she went into v-tach, which where her heart rate skyrocketed and the pacemaker did not capture it and it did not fire which meant that they had to shock her with the paddles to get the heart started again.  He said that he thought to himself how fortunate that it happened while she was in the OR waiting to get her new heart and that had it happened a day before, he would have been faced with a major decision of whether to do a procedure to replace the pacemaker lead-wire or consider a mechinal heart for a temporary fix.  He said again that she was meant to get the heart at that time.  Needless to say, we cried.  He also said that the heart was "perfect" and it was meant for Rachel to have.  Needless to say, we cried again.  He did tell us that we can see her old heart and he can show us all of the defects, so we are waiting to see it.  We have to also say that due to the high risk of rejection and/or infection, we can not allow any visitors until further notice.  We even have to wear a mask, gown and gloves while we are here with her.
We are so very grateful and thankful for the donor and his/her family for giving life so that Rachel can now know what its like to have a good healthy heart.  Plus remember this family, whoever and wherever they are, that lost a love one.  And, plesae remember to pray for two other families here in the PICU that are waiting on new hearts for their little ones.  One little boy, age 19 months and one little girl, about 4 months old. 
We continue to thank everyone for the support and prayers during this time and ask that you continue to pray for Rachel during this recovery period; the next several days will be critical.
We also would like to express our gratitude to the doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists here.  What a bunch of sweet, compassionate people.  The coolest thing was yesterday morning when we were outside of the unit standing around waiting to hear something and the nurses coming on for the 7:00 a.m. shift were hugging our necks and/or high-fiving us.  Some of them had heard and some of them hadn't heard.  The ones that hadn't heard were just about in tears with joy of hearing the news.  Most all of the nurses came by at one point during the day to check on her and all of them were just so happy for her and us.
Okay, my fingers hurt from too much typing.  Another post later.