The Decision of a Life(time)

Over the holiday period we visited New York Presbyterian Children's Hospital to help us decide which hospital to have Piper's heart surgery. Surprisingly it didn't take that long to get to the hospital, my father was  very nice and offered to drive us into the city. After waiting for a long time for a consultation with finally met Dr. Bacha, who is a very well known surgeon and is also the Chief of Congential and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. He was very friendly and informed us about the procedure. I would say he had a very warm bed-side manner which is important.

After our consultation we requested a tour of the CICU and step down unit. The lady who gave us the tour doesn't normally give the tours but was certainly as helpful as she could be (the hospital was short staffed due to the holiday period). If we were to choose NYP Piper would have her own room in the ICU with a sofa like bed for me to sleep on and the in the step down unit she would share a room But I would still be able to stay in her room.

So now it is decision time. Tomorrow (well it was tomorrow 2 days ago......now it's yesterday) we have a follow up appointment with Piper's Cardiologist Dr. Kaufman and we will have to decide where to schedule her surgery so it can be performed towards the end of January. Mark and I have been talking to friends and family members and have gone over and over, again and again, a long list of Pros and Cons. It seems each day we lean towards one hospital over the other (CHOP) only to change our minds the next day.

Both CHOP and NYP are well renowned hospitals, both surgeons are at the top of their fields, both hospitals say Piper will most likely be in the ICU for two days and will have her own nurse. So after piles of research and picking various people's brains, it has come down to where our gut feels most comfortable sending Piper. What we are worried about is making the wrong decision. So many people have told us that between CHOP and NYP there is no wrong choice but that's easy for them to say as most of them are not in the predicament that we are. It's amazing how alone making this decision has made us feel.

So after many agonizing days we have decided to have Piper's surgery at CHOP, and have since scheduled it. Now we can somewhat relax a little....at least until the time for the surgery rolls around.