I phoned the ward early to see if Flo had been a good girl overnight. She had needed a dummy which they gave her and she had settled. Once I had my obs I came down for cuddles to wait for Tom to come in. One of the nurses came to see me and told me that surgeons wanted to speak to us to gain consent for doing her operation tomorrow. I asked them to come back later because Tom wasn’t here yet. We were gutted, it was Sunday and we had only had 2 days in our newborn bubble. We both had lots of cuddles and cried about what was to come.
Florence didn’t need the surgery immediately, but a bed space had become available on CPICU (Cardiac paediatric intensive care unit), so the decision was made and Florrie was next up. The Cardiology surgeon who came to talk to us spent over an hour with us going through the surgery, benefits and risks. I remember vividly Tom and the surgeon talking about cricket, because Pakistan v India were playing in the T20 World Cup. We signed the consent paperwork because we knew we had too, even though Florence looked fine, she wasn’t, it would only be a matter of time. Throughout the pregnancy the one thing we could do to help you is make the decision for you to have surgery, it was then up to the Doctors and Florence to fight through what was coming. We both cuddled her and told her we loved her lots because there was a very real possibility it could be the last night.
That night I went sleep reminding Tom he needed to be at the hospital early because they would be taking her to theatre at 7.30. There was lots of crying and I wandered back down to the ward to see her and just give her another kiss.
Leicester Royal InfirmaryKeepthebeatLittle Hearts MatterTiny Tickers “The Tiny Hearts Charity”Heart LinkEast midlands Congenital Heart CentreBritish Heart Foundation