Riley Eve Casey

I would hazard to guess that not everyone reading this has spent time in the PICU with their child. It’s filled with wonderful nurses and doctors who take care of your kid as well as you but no matter how wonderful they are, all you can think about is getting out of there as soon as humanly possible. You just know that if you aren’t moving out pronto then something is not right. The first time Riley had her stay in January she managed to stay much longer than we were anticipating; this time the PICU staff wanted to move her out quicker than we were expecting. In fact the very next day after surgery Riley just didn’t fit whatever criteria to keep her there. Only problem was that the doctors needed to put a line in her chest during surgery that wouldn’t be removed for five days and the Ward refused to take her until that happened. Thankfully someone had a change of heart and made the arrangements for her to transfer. It was nice to return to the ward; it feels a little like home in

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind… After the Cardiac Catheter, the pressing question on our minds was “When is the next surgery?”. Normally after they complete the procedure they like to get straight onto it but in our case we had one little snag. Our Cardiac Surgeon was in Perth for the week and wouldn’t return until the next Tuesday. All the doctors told us that once he got back, he would choose the date and we would be full steam ahead. We spent the Easter Weekend considering our options: Option 1: Nelson picks a date for later that week, much later. After all he has just gotten back so he wouldn’t want to do her surgery straight away. He would want time to prepare alongside all his other cases. Option 2: He would choose a date next week. Possibly on the Monday. This one seemed to make the most sense to us. Tuesday began just like any other day; in fact Jess found some time to finally go baby shopping. We have prepared so much for being in Brisbane, not

Apparently having a Cardiac Catheter Procedure is like Christmas; or at least it seemed like that every time we mentioned to someone that Riley was going in for it very soon. All the nurses and doctors would say “You must be so excited!” with such enthusiasm you would think we were about to be opening presents. Of course they say it like that not because they enjoy putting children through painful procedures; but because they know that this is the beginning of the end for our time in Brisbane. The Cardiac Catheter is used to gather information for the next surgery and then it is planned to happen shortly after. I must admit I did not share their enthusiasm. I had quite been enjoying the “happy bubble” we were living in with our daughter because the past couple of months had been complication free. We had been able to just live a relatively normal life with her; taking her to Southbank for the afternoons, introducing her to visitors from home and even getting to take her home every