Two of Hearts: Maylia's Miracle Pt 1

"It's probably my white coat," she laughed. For whatever reason, Maylia had become anxious and clingy. She had been doing so well around new people , I was surprised to see her so nervous. " I bet it's my white coat," she insisted. And I finally decided she was right. The past few weeks for Maylia had included a number of Doctor and clinic appointments. She had been poked and prodded, weighed, measured, checked and re-checked again. So when we met a friend of mine at the hospital where she worked, as we were on our way to our first cardiologist appointment, I finally had to agree, that her white lab coat was what set her off. Not a great omen.

We had been so fortunate to get into see the cardiologist as soon as we had. After Dr. Baxter had seen Maylia at the international adoption clinic, she sent in a referral to the Stollery Pediatric Cardiology. But she had also told us, that with Maylia doing so well that it would probably be at least 6 months before we got in. So, needless to say, we were surprised when they called to book an appointment just a few weeks later.

After visiting with Christy, she walked us through the maze of elevators and corridors to the Stollery Cardiology Unit.

We checked in and sat in the waiting room and I was amazed at how busy it was. It struck me how many families -- how many children -- struggle with health challenges. There were infants, toddlers, children and teens, all waiting with their concerned parents to be seen. I felt so lucky that Maylia's health had been so good to this point. Now we were just waiting to confirm if we would continue to be so lucky.

We were called in to the first room where they would take her measurements. Maylia seemed to know exactly what was going on and began whimpering -- then crying -- then outright screaming. We couldn't get her to stand on the scale and it took two of us to hold her on the counter so they could measure her height. After struggling for several minutes with her they took us to the hallway where they would tape a monitor to her toe to check her blood pressure. Cue more wriggling, crying and screaming. After kicking it off for the third time, the patient, but clearly concerned attendant said , " I don't know if we will be able to do this today ."

After discussing it with her we decided that , despite my willingness to hold her down, the only way to get accurate readings would be to sedate her -- and that would mean coming back on another day. Though I wasn't keen on having to come back again, the most important thing was to do this right so I went back out to reception where they could re-schedule us. Fortunately , they could book us in for that Friday, so two days later we were back again.

This time was a little more challenging. Not only would Maylia know exactly what was going to happen when we entered the hospital, this time, due to the sedative they would give her, she had to come fasting. No solid food after 6 a.m. and no liquids of any kind after 9 a.m.

This was going to be a treat.