A mere glimpse into the future
That's exactly what we did; we waited, and waited, and waited. And as we sat in the waiting room waiting for an update, there was nothing but pure silence. Mom, Dad, Amy, Scott, and myself could do nothing but just be present. It was a long exhausting day thus far, and it was far from over. Surgery took over 5 hours and with Ashley unstable and arresting, it was a very rocky journey. We hadn't heard much from the OR along the way and after seeing what I had earlier, I remember feeling like my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. I was so scared and felt nauseous. I remember Dad pacing back and forth wearing the carpet out, and Mom was sitting with us quiet. It's so crazy to look back on that day all of these years later when it feels like it was all just yesterday.
Finally that afternoon, Dr. Helseth (Ashley's Surgeon) entered the waiting room. My heart sank. I wasn't sure I was prepared for what was about to come out of his mouth but I remember being more than ready to hear it. He was accompanied by Dr. Miller and, Dr. Singh who went on to explain how they repaired Ashley's tricuspid valve along with the atrium defects she had. Ashley's Epstein's Anomaly that she was born with was extra complicated due to the poor condition of not only her heart, but her lungs too. They placed a shunt in her heart which would help the blood flow from her heart to her lungs, as well as help her heart hopefully shrink back to normal size. This shunt wouldn’t grow as Ashley grew however, and she would at some point outgrow it and need a bigger, permanent one. They talked about how she had arrested, and how the next 72 hours was critical. Every hour she survived with 'no issues' would be one tiny step closer to her survival. If there was any chance of Ashley making it through this and coming home, it was going to take time, and a lot of it. She would be spending her coming days in the hospital. We didn't care how long she would be there as long as she was healing, resting, and gaining strength to get healthy. I didn't dare bring up what I witnessed earlier, we all already knew that had happened. There was a tiny little bit of relief when the Doctors left the room, but we knew we had a long, long road ahead.
We needed a break and a reprieve at that point so we decided to go grab something to eat and get away from the waiting room. We agreed to walk the tunnel and go eat at Abbott Northwest. I remember them having pretty decent cafeteria food but even better, they had a McDonalds! We were all emotionally exhausted. We had just gotten through the toughest day of Ashley's life. As you have probably guessed though, that day was the furthest from the worst. It was just the beginning of Ashley's surgeries, her hospital journey, and her setbacks. We somehow made it through and we knew we had to mentally prepare for the upcoming game of 'hurry up and wait'. Time was of the essence and as each hour passed, we grew more and more hopeful of what Ashley's future could look like.