Saturday, October 20, 2007
Friday Current mood: contemplative
Hey once again! I hope everyone is doing well, and safe. My sister in Pensacola said they were hit with some tornadoes yesterday and that there was lots of damage.....if you are in that area I hope you are ok!!!
Things here in California are continuing to go well. Macy Jane was moved to the PICU side today because there was a sicker baby that needed her bed. Then she was moved back to room 67, which is the last room she should go to before she goes upstairs! (where we have been pretty much for the past month)
I stayed last night and Steve stayed for the morning part, then my mom took over. When I arrived at the hospital, mom was exhausted because MJ had been wearing her out! When mom got there earlier today, she saw some fresh blood coming from the right side of MJs chest. The nurse was busy talking to someone so mom frantically waved her over. Turns out that somehow one of the lines that was in the left side of Macy Jane's heart to messure pressures had become dislodged. The result was bleeding. She lost A LOT of blood and it took 3 and 1/2 hours for the surgeons assistant to get out of the OR and come and take care of it. In the meantime MJ is going through withdrawals MEGA BAD (again), maybe worse than last time as far as the wiggling and twitching goes. Mom had to stand by her bed the those 3 and 1/2 hours and hold all four of her limbs down because any movement caused more blood to come out. Finally the assistant came and removed the line. It was difficult to get out so he used a guidewire to get it out so it wouldn't damage anything in her heart. She had to have an Ecocardiogram done of her heart to make sure that everything looked good and there she did not have a pericardial effusion. Her ECHO looked great. She had another wire that was going into the right side of her heart measuring pressures as well, so the assistant came back after MJ had received some blood and took that one out as well. She lost some blood with that one, but they gave her an additional transfusion.
So, now she has 2 chest tubes left. One of them is draining a fair amount, especially after the incidences today. The other one has only had about 3 cc out since her surgery so hopefully they will take that out tomorrow. Besides the sternal incision and the 2 chest tubes, she is on 1 and 1/2 liters of oxygen and that's pretty much all of the tubes from surgery. I wish I could describe how GREAT she looks, I am still kind of in shock and just amazed.
Please pray that her withdrawals will go away soon. They gave her some ativan this evening and she is pretty much resting really really peacefully now. I don't think the pacifier has come out of her mouth since early this afternoon! She loves that thing and it is such a comfort for her to have.
I do not know when we are coming home. If things continue to go well like they have been, I think we could be home by Thanksgiving. Now, of course I have no clue when I say that but it is over a month away and if she tolerates her feeds then she should be okay by then. Speaking of feeds, they started her feeds back today via her g-tube and so far she is doing okay. She never really starts to gag until she is completely awake and not withdrawing, so we may have a few days to go before we see if she is going to or not. If she does, we will work through it. I am praying really hard that she doesn't though!!!
Well, I am going to go and check my email now. Steve is going to take over nightshift for me starting at midnight tonight so I will probably feel more human again soon I just get so exhausted if I stay up all night now, it is really wierd. I used to be able to do it all of the time without problems. I guess all of the stress etc. is taking its toll. When I get home, one of the first things I am going to do after I enjoy MJ is to go and schedule a massage somewhere. I don't care if I don't have the money, I will put it on the credit card, lol. I want the hour long massage! Man that sounds SO good.
Thanks for the prayers. To all of those that send me messages, I promise that I will reply to them at some point and time. Just be patient with me
Much Love
Bethany