CraZy DreAm I HaD

Anybody that knows how to interpret dreams, your comments are welcome.

A large convention type hall was used for a meeting of people with Down syndrome and their families. I haven't yet been to a CDSC convention or a Natainal convention so I am not sure what they are like, but I have a pretty good idea. I was alone with Penny, because in my dream Scott stayed home with Nathaniel. I had been having a great time getting to know other families and other children and some adults with Down syndrome too. This dream felt so real, like I really knew these people.

At some point, it was like there was a lock down. We were all trapped in this hotel that housed only the convention people. Armed guards could be seen through windows at pretty much every locked exit. Obama was visible through a large glass, sitting behind his presidential desk with body guards standing on either side of him. Suddenly, his voice came on a speaker and he announced that we were all to be terminated since our children's lives were not ended before they were born. I don't remember the exact words in the dream, only that the method of execution for us was that gas would be piped into our convention space.

I cried so much in this dream. We all protested and demanded to know why our children's lives were not valued. Additionally, many of us had family left at home and we insisted that this was good reason to let us all live. Obama was unwaivering in his intent.

Luckily, it was a huge space that we were confined to, so in my dream, the gassing took an infinitely long time to produce any effects. I noticed a police officer (dressed unlike the guards) in a window and I held up a sign and waved my arms to get her attention. I communicated to her that Obama was in this building with us and he intended to murder us all. This officer was able to confront Obama and call off the mass murder. But he gave me a terrible look and let me know that this was not over, especially with me.

SO, what the heck does this mean?

Remembering 4th of Julys past

So my post is a day late. . . sue me.

Seven years ago yesterday I had approached my due date with Nathaniel. It was a very hot day, not like yesterday at all. I am pretty sure the temperature had reached 100 degrees. Having stopped working only 1 week prior as a waitress at TGI Fridays, I enjoyed lounging around at my parents house for a BBQ that day. Amazing that I cannot remember the 4th 3 years ago, but that day I remember all sorts of details. A good friend of mine, Kelly, stopped by with gifts from her mother and herself for the new baby that was to arrive. I was only 22 with all sorts of expectations of what motherhood was going to be like.

I tell his birth story to Nathaniel every day on his birthday, July 7. Has it really been 7 years already???

Two years ago yesterday I woke up early to get Nathaniel ready to go to CCMC. Penny had been re-admitted five days earlier for an infection to her open heart surgical incision. She hadn't responded to oral antibiotics, and we weren't sure what we were dealing with so, she was kept on the inside for a full course of IV anceph. I was bummed for obvious reasons, but also because we would have loved to spend the holidy with Scott's mother. (Of course we didn't know this was her last 4th of July.) Scott and I were hopeful that Penny was getting freed that day and we would have the rest of the day out of that place. Scott had slept over since we never left her in the hospital by herself. Nathaniel and I made our way through the short fifteen minute drive, and then spent an unusually quick 5 minutes to find a parking space. I pulled Nathaniel in one of the wagons since I was ready to take advantage of any fun thing for Nathaniel. In the lobby in front of the main elevators they had two tables with volunteers making party hats. It was such a neat thing for Nathaniel (almost five) to do. I was so grateful for that, I mean, how nice is it that they do this for families on a holiday. We finally made it upstairs and I learned that Penny was indeed going to be discharged that afternoon!!!!

Tonight, Nathaniel is at the Manchester fireworks with Scott. I got a call at 8 pm that Nathaniel had fallen asleep at 7:30 or so. What a tired maniac!!! Poopers finally crashed at 9 pm tonight after I worked her hard at the playscape down the street. This girl can crawl up the stairs and slide head first down the short slide. What a nut!! Then we had girls night out at Friendly's. We tried out a booster seat for the first time, instead of the high chair. She was wonderful! So engaged with her meal and her momma. We conversed most of the eveing about Dada, but sometimes we talked about the light, and sometimes we discussed the baby in the booth near us.

I hope everyone esle is having a great holiday weekend.

Man, maybe I should just find people to biography all week!

from http://www.louisianamedicalnews.com/news.php?viewStory=1172

Dr. Dennis Mello

By: PATRICIA GANNON

No one ever has to plead with Dr. Dennis Mello to have a heart. It's an absolute necessity in his business, literally and figuratively.

As a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon, he often delivers the most serious diagnoses for the most fragile of patients. It's a job he does well, for a number of reasons.

"I took congenital heart surgery and was almost finished with the study when my first son was born requiring congenital heart surgery," said Mello. "It solidified everything. I can look at it (the specialty) from both sides."

"I was fortunate to be where I was."

It also helps that his father was a plumber and for many years, Mello likewise supported himself fixing leaks and valves while still in school. Although he briefly considered ophthalmology, the signposts along the way were clear. "Once, when I was a medical student, I watched a heart surgeon—a pediatric heart surgeon—and that was the moment for me. I always loved to take care of children."

Congenital heart surgeons treat lesions or conditions people are born with, from premature babies to adults. "It's sort of a misnomer," said Mello. "Some patients require further surgeries as adults. They need to be managed, a valve put in, or one degenerates and needs to be changed-- for instance, a baby was born without a valve. Eventually the valve will become too small and require multiple operations. We don't have a valve that lasts forever."

Still other operations are corrective, meaning all the parts of the heart are there, but in disarray. Other patients sometimes have half a heart and will have palliative operations but will never be normal. "Instead of four chambers, they have three," he said. ""It's congenital, not acquired. We make it work well the way it is."

Born in Farmington, Connecticut, just outside of Hartford, Mello was a Yale undergrad and later attended medical school at the University of Connecticut, where he did his surgical residency as well. His cardiac training came later at the University of California in San Francisco, and included two years of adult cardiac studies and two years pediatric cardiac and congenital training—the latter under the trained eye of influential pediatric surgeon Dr. Frank Hanley,

After completing his training, Mello returned to Connecticut as director of Pediatric and congenital surgery at Children's Hospital of Connecticut, and subsequently collaborated in a similar position with another physician at Yale Children's Hospital. He is 44. "But physically, it feels like 69," he laughed. "You go through a lot of schooling, I didn't finish until I was 35 and I've been at this for 10 years.

"The work puts on about 30 years."

Married to an anesthetist and the father of three, Mello was recruited by Ochsner after the post was left vacant after Katrina. "It's a great institution," he said. "I was recruited and came down not only to rebuild, but for the opportunity."

Thus far, Ochsner's new director of pediatric cardiac surgery has also been accorded the opportunity to evacuate. "The storm was interesting," he said, referring to Gustav. "My wife preceded me here, then called and said 'You have to get down here, we have to evacuate.' I slept one night in my new home and had to leave it."

Hurricane season and living out of boxes aside, Mello says New Orleans is a good fit. He likes the friendly people, the different culture, and learning to walk with his head up, not down, like they do in the Northeast. But while he worked on his home in Connecticut, he's resisted the temptation to renovate in New Orleans.

"I've been doing it awhile, plumbing, heating, carpentry, making furniture. I wanted to get settled first. Otherwise, I'd focus on the crown moldings the doors and cabinetry," he laughed. Not only does he use dangerous tools, it's a risk he takes on a regular basis. "I've been doing it a long time," he said. I have a woodshop, and I come home at night and go out and do stuff, you know, get the kids involved. I don't actually pull myself away from the family. It's not like golf."

He also has his eye on Lake Ponchartrain. A former yacht club member back home in Connecticut, he hopes to get his racing sailboat up and running soon.

But first and foremost is growing the premier congenital and pediatric department in the area. "We have a major one to the west, in Houston," he said. "I'd like to dominate the whole Southern Region."

Mello dedicates what little spare room he has in his professional schedule to missionary work in other countries. Every year, he travels to St. Petersburg, Russia, and then to the city of Ascension, in Paraguay. In just ten days time, he'll leave with a medical team, half of which he recruited from Ochsner and half from Connecticut. It's a mission he warms to. "Children in the U.S. have easy access," he explained. "Even in Russia, an unbelievable number die simply because they have no access." Mello volunteers his time and organizes other doctors in his field, then lobbies to the companies that manufacture his sutures and valves. "I'm really passionate about it," he said.

"You'd be surprised, Russia's so backward. They don't put their money and resources back into their people. Paraguay simply has no money."

What doesn't surprise us is Mello is all heart.

Dr. Mello did both Penny's surgeries and boy, was he good! He also repaired Dillon's heart as well as Georgia's and many many other children. I was actually devestated when I learned he moved down to New Orleans last September. Those kids down south sure are lucky. Penny will need additional surgeries eventually and we will have to decide if we want to go to Yale, Boston, or the new guy (girl) at CCMC at the time her next surgery is needed.

The bad news is we didn't learn anything new

That is because I already knew that there was nothing wrong with her. The MRI was a long process. We got there at 6:30 as requested but nothing happened until just before 8 am when they asked me to bring her into the area where I could change her into the johnnies. Then I took her into the MRI room so fast I didn't get a chance to take a picture of her in the hospital garb. Here is a video of her just before they finally came out to get her, clearly she was tired and cranky from hunger.

Preparing for Tomorrow

I have no idea why I am so anxious over tomorrow's MRI. Since we found out that this is going to involve general anesthesia I have just had this not so good feeling. However, it is just an MRI and I am sure that everything will end out just fine. And anyway, what is the worst news that would likely come out of tomorrow's procedure? That she would need another surgery? Well, duh, we know she is going to need another surgery some day. I was hoping to get to 2011 at least before her next one was due, but the sooner her next surgery is over with, the sooner we can look forward to her next one sometime around puberty.

For those of you that are new to Penelope's story, she has Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia (atresia = missing), her pulmonary valve and a huge chunk of her pulmonary artery are absent. Some folks with ToF are put right after one or two surgeries because they have ToF with pulmonary stenosis (stenosis = narrow). Penelope's atresia is so pronounced that both of her branch pulmonary arteries are then stenotic and they might now be growing properly with the rest of her body. This MRI is going to determine the severity of the stenosis in those branch arteries. Then Dr. S can decide of some intervention prior to her next surgery may be necessary. Of course, no one is anticipating that she might need intervention because she is doing so exceptionally well. Boy, that Dr. Mello (the surgeon) sure did a great job on my baby's heart. He picked a donor artery that she could grow and wen it is time for her next surgery they will be most likely putting in a bovine valve, how crazy is that!

Well, I hope everyone says a little prayer for Penny tomorrow and send some good vibes so that we get some good news. While you are at it, please say a prayer for both Jax as well as Dillon because they are not feeling well. I am sure it is very hard on their mommies to see them sick.

Pictures to be come soon, I promise!

I know, I have really been slacking in the picture deptartment, I have just been so busy lately. Also, I actually have things to do at work now, so no more posting while I am at work.

Scott and I have that meeting tomorrow with Nathaniel's teachers and his principal. Thanks to the many people whose brain I picked, I feel that I have some good ideas to direct the conversation.

To end on a good side. Penny is just such a little joy. She now puts the sign for "more" together with "eat" when she wants to let us know that she is still hungry. I also had a conversation today with the RN for the cardiologist to discuss the real benefit for the MRI at this time. I guess the concern is that her branch pulmonary arteries are not growing to the proper size. From what I was told, the echo is mostly good for getting a picture inside the heart, but once you get to the peripheries the echo is not as reliable. So, if we wait for an echo in two months, we will most likely be at the crossroads and we will have to decide again what to do. I believe now that the best thing to do is to get the MRI done even though it will mean that Penny will have to go under general anesthesia and she will need to be intebated.