Arianne has a big heart!

We've always known that Arianne has a beautiful heart.

We really never wanted to see it this close.

Long story short:

Last month we went to her regular, every year sports physical and her doctor (bless her!) heard a heart murmur and sent us to see a pediatric cardiologist. We saw him, he did an echo cardiogram. It turned out the murmur was nothing but that there was a problem with her coronary arteries. The pictures at the Centralia office weren't coming out clear enough so he scheduled us an appointment at his main office in Tacoma with a stronger picture taker. We went to that appointment certain that they would do the exam and send us on our way with a clean bill of health (clean, but pricey!).

No such luck!

After many tries for good pictures, Dr. Stefanelli said, "It's not the machine causing poor pictures, it's that there is a problem." He told us we'd need to come back to Tacoma the following week for a CT/Angio. He had a good idea what the problem was but needed good pictures to be sure. This test would give them a 3D image of her heart and find the problem. Arianne's left coronary artery was in the correct spot but her right artery was M.I.A. (my term, not his) We went to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital for the test.
It was a horrible day, even with nice, caring people bringing Arianne toasty, heated blankets all day. The first IV didn't go in all the way so the second one was worse because she knew what was coming! We failed to mention to her that we couldn't actually be with her during the actual test so that was a cruel surprise when the radiologist said, "say goodbye to your parents".
After they were done they showed us the pictures and sure enough, there was that artery, obviously off track.
Dr. Stefanelli called the next day to tell us that he had the results and would go over them with a team of cardiologists and a couple of surgeons and would get back to us after our vacation. He said, "Go on your trip, have a good time, don't worry" (I'm pretty sure he said the don't worry part)

Take a rest from Reading here

I swear this really is the short version

We went to Nevada - saw grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...

We had a great time and "didn't worry"... much.

We got home on Sunday night, the doctor called Monday morning and said that after reviewing the images with 8 doctors they all agreed she was at risk and that her artery needed fixed. Her right artery comes out of the left side of her aorta just like the left one does rather than coming out of the right side.

After many tears (Arianne's, mine and Darrell's) and lots of worry she is scheduled for open heart surgery on August 21st.

The surgeon will cut the artery and re-attach it where it belongs. The surgery will last 4 hours and she will be in ICU for 2 days then a regular room for a couple more. We went to Tacoma (I'm tired of typing that, let alone DRIVING IT) today for lots of tests, blood work, x-rays, a tour of the hospital, and to meet the surgeon. We got many questions answered, even questions we didn't know we had. Everyone was so great to Arianne. I wish we had no reason to know these people but since we do, they sure seem fantastic! It is a much bigger surgery than we originally thought from our phone conversations and internet research. Arianne is obviously really scared. She is so sweet though. We ask if there is anything she needs, she says "No". What a girl... "No" at a time when she could ask for just about anything! She doesn't talk much but we try to coax and pry some feelings out of her. She will have quite the story to tell one day.

I hope this answers some questions - I'll try to update this while we're at the hospital next week.