Bubble study Results

The Echo Bubble Study test is done and the results are good!
Gillian did great! Even getting the IV was with very little hitch. The nurse prepped her IV spot with alcohol to clean it, and a numbing cream. The cardiologist came in, spoke with us a bit, explained what he was going to do. Then we went to another station to have the IV put in, and Gillian was well-prepared, and put up absolutely no fuss at all. Then we went to the Echo lab, where the technician did some preliminary scans for the cardiologist to review. Gillian seemed a bit upset, and tearful, which I attributed to it being such a long/trying procedure, but later she told me that some of the scanning spots hurt.
The Bubble study was the fastest. They introduced the saline solution through the IV and immediately on the screen we could see the right chamber fill with bubbles. The cardiologist had Gillian cough and also "push" down (kinda like pushing to poop, without actually pooping) to exert some pressure. There was clearly no passage of bubbles to the left chamber. They repeated the test once more, and he was happy with the results. They were going to pass the information, results, and video files to the surgeon at UCSF. So the next step is pretty much the surgery. The cardiologist told Gillian that he felt she would really feel a lot better after the surgery, but he said she probably doesn't know what "better" feels like because the original repair was done right after birth, and she has just adjusted and grown with what is now an undersized homograft.
So now, the surgery will proceed, and from our understanding, it is still scheduled for August 28. Our cardiologist's nurse will be contacting UCSF to see if there have been any openings for an earlier date.

So.. since this was done at Kaiser's Morse Ave. facility, out near Arden, Gillian asked if we could go to Leatherby's after. Which, after seeing what she had to endure, this seemed like a no-brainer.

So that's the latest, greatest.... stay tuned for more info! ;-)