Friday, September 14, 2007
Friday Update Current mood: thankful
Sorry it has taken so long for me to update, the wireless internet has been down at the hospital and I have been too busy/tired to keep checking to see if it is working
Macy Jane is now post-op day 2. She is continuing to do very well considering all that she has been through. They left her chest open with a little see through patch over it to keep germs etc. out. Thank the Lord that they were able to close her chest today!!!! They did not close her chest after the surgery because she was on the heart/lung bypass machine for 344 minutes, which is a LONG time and they thought that she was going to swell a lot. However, she proved them wrong and did not swell very much so they were able to close her up today.
I cannot describe to you what it was like to see her for the first time after surgery. Being a nurse, I am used to seeing lots of tubes and wires.....but this too is different when it is your own child laying there. On top of the breathing machine, she has 3 chest tubes coming out of her chest, blue wires also known as pacing wires coming out of 2 different places, 2 arterial lines, 3 massive iv lines, and her chest was open. She was extremely pale and very very very cold (they wanted her to be cold). She still looked like our Macy Jane. She was not on any sedation medication post-op because they wanted her to wake up and get mad so that they would know that she was going to wake up after being on the bypass machine that long. She woke up overnight and was arching her back and wiggling and ever since they have had a hard time sedating her, but finally have the right formula. I went to see her Thursday morning around 6 and as soon as she heard my voice, she opened her eyes and looked at me and started wiggling. I don't talk very loud any more when I go in there so that she won't get upset. It completely made my day to see her open her eyes!! I didn't know that she had woken up at all and it was such a nice suprise.
Anyways, Dr. Hanley is such an awesome awesome person. He has such a meek and mild manner about himself and always takes the time to come and see us when he passes by the sitting area where we are. I thank the Lord for him, he has performed the actions that it took for the miracle in MJs heart and the Lord performed that miracle. God Bless Him!
Now, I am sure everyone wants to know what is next. It will continue to take a few days to get her off of the ventilator. She is on the lowest setting possible and is doing really really well. They want her to rest for a bit more. She is on 14 different IV medications and they are slowly going to start weaning them off. Once she is extubated (off breathing machine) she will move to a different area in the ICU for a few days and then go upstairs to a regular room. I do not know how long she will have the chest tubes, it depends on how much drainage that she has from them.
After this surgery, we should be able to go home (or at least back to Memphis and should be able to go home) for 3-5 months. This will give the arteries time to grow. We will fly back out to California to have the hole in her heart repaired. The recovery time from that surgery is very fast!! She could be off the ventilator within 8 hours after that surgery etc. This really and trully was the MAJOR surgery. Not that the other one isn't going to be major, but this next one is less complicated.
Well, I am going to try to upload some pictures of MJ on here. Please do not freak out, she has a lot of stuff coming in and out of her, but that is okay. Just think of it as all of the things that are saving her life!!!
I cannot say thank you enough for the prayers! God has been so good and I give him all of the praise and the glory for this miracle. I have so many thoughts running through my head and I can't help but think of that contemporary christian song "Our God is an awesome God". It trully says how I feel!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers for strength and peace. If they had El Porton type mexican food, I would consider moving out here. I could certainly handle having 70 degree temps pretty much year round with no humidity.
Much Love,
Bethany