Moving, Gifts, Congestion

Emma is doing really well since her sugery on Thursday. Yesterday the pulled her RA line (measure heart pressure), central line & her blood pressure line. Then she was moved out of PCICU & into a room around 7pm on 7C.

Not long after moving up to 7C a friend of a friend, Kim Kirby brought us a big Christmas surprise. Her & her husband Greg brought Emma a mini Christmas tree & gifts from the Summerville CofC. I had spoke with Kim a few days ago & she told me they wanted to bring us something but I had no idea it would be this grand. A special thanks to the Summerville congregation, your Christian light really is shining in more ways than one. I hope we get a chance to meet all of you some day, your expression of kindness was overwhelming.

Our first night in the room with Emma is pretty tough. Her throat is really sore from the vent, which is normal & expected but she seems is very congested too. Several doctors came to take a look at her last night & this morning & they all agree her lungs sound fine, which is a good thing but she may have picked up something while she has been here. They are continuing to watch her carefully & may give her steriods if necessary.

They also pulled her drain & pace maker wire about an hour ago so now Emma is napping. She is also scheduled to have a chest xray & an echo which are routine after pulling the drain & wires. Sometimes complications can arise after these are removed so they make sure they take a look. Dr. Baker said while doing rounds this morning that she MAY be able to go home but he isn't sure.

All in all, Emma is doing great & we can't thank you guys enough for all the thoughts & prayers that have been on Emma's behalf. She is a precious little baby & we thank God for bringing her to us everyday & granting us the priveledge of being her parents.

Please Remain Calm

is what the docs & nurses keep trying to tell Emma. The recovery for this surgery is much different than the last 2 she has had. They are still keeping her medicated so she will remain calm, still & as little aggetated as possible. If she gets too upset or moves to much she could tear the patches they placed yesterday so they want her to remain as quiet & calm as possible. They are trying to not give her as much morphin but if we can't settle her down they will give her some & she just got a dose before we left at 10:30.

Her temp has come down & her blood pressure came down right before we left but her heart pressure level are still a little high. They may take out one of her drain tubes tomorrow depending on her pressure levels. I also noticed tonight her o2 started had dropped to the low 90s which is okay as long as they don't get into the 80s. I tried to feed her a bottle of formula before we left tonight but she was totally not interested & her nurse said that was fine. She is going to try & offer her one later but its fine if she doesn't take it yet & she probably won't.

The nurse told us all the beds on 7C are taken & she doesn't forsee Emma moving this weekend which is just fine with us. The doctors has orignally told us her recovery wouldn't be any longer than last time but I am already noticing a big difference but of course this surgery was more extensive than I think they had planned. Regarless she is still doing very well considering what she went through yesterday & they are very pleased with her progress, as are we.

Very Pleased

that is the exact word from the surgeon yesterday when we spoke with him after Emma's surgery. He was just beaming with excitement & pleasure that the surgery was so successful. After the last surgery in Oct. he wasn't happy at all & now he couldn't be any happier.

He actually went inside the heart & attached some of the muscles together to cover up some the VSD's + he replaced one of the patches from last time & added an additional one. Although she was in surgery for over 8 eight hours & it was a very long day for us all, she is doing great. Her blood pressure, temp & respirations are on the high side but we just spoke to the cardiologist & he said that isn't surprising with the amount of work they did on her yesterday. They are taking out her breathing tube right now to see how she does & she will most likely come off the vent completely this afternoon.

3rd Times a Charm

or at least that is our prayer, wish & hope. I told Emma this morning as we got her our of the car this morning in the hospital parking deck that this would be the last time, but of course I told her that 5 weeks ago too. Only God truly knows what the future holds but we have prayed that this will be the last heart surgery she will have to endure. We are very thankful to be blessed with such a strong little girl.

We have received 2 updates on Emma so far & she is doing well. I took about 2 hours to get through all the scar tissue from the last surgery 5 weeks ago & she is now on the heart lung bypass machine. They are predicted it will be between 12:00 - 2:00pm before they are done. I also asked one of the cardiologist yesterday if her recovery time would be any longer since she just had surgery 5 weeks ago & he didn't forsee any complications at all. They are estimating she will be here 5-7 days, so hopefully we will be going home by the middle of next week.

I will post more updates as we get them.

Flooding

I must this morning was a bit frustrating & at time a little scary for me, also wondering why nobody warned us this might happen. I knew it was going to rain last night & I even heard it in my sleeplessness but I never expected what we found.

As we ate breakfast on the roof of our hotel that overlooks the river we noticed that traffic was at a standstill & the water level looked high. I heard one of the waitresses tell another table that from the looks of it outside that downtown was most likely flooded but I didn't really believe her. Not that it really mattered, we had to go downtown, that is where the hospital is & Emma had her pre-op scheduled for 9am. We got in the car a little later than I had planned but we thought it was just a traffic jam until we started to notice all the water. Normally it only takes 15 minutes tops to drive, park & walk to the hospital but today it took us 1.5 hours.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing & there were no police out directing traffic but they did put up barracades to close roads, unfortunately all the roads we needed were the ones that were closed. I ended up calling the Same Day Observation Lab to tell them we were stuck in traffic & the completely understood & said get there when you can, so Chris dropped off me, Mama & Emma so we could walk while Chris parked the car. Well we didn't make it very far, a few blocks, before I called Chris & said he needed to come pick us back up. We couldn't even get to the hospital by foot without walking thru knee deep water & we were not doing that, even though we saw many rolling up their pants to do just that.

So Chris came back, picked us up & drove us through the water, to the other side & then we got out to walk the rest of the way. In the meantime, Emma is screaming, due to a dirty diaper + a very sore bottom (a rare thing for her). She actually ended up crying herself to sleep in my arms while we walked to the hospital only to be awoken by a staff member offering to help us find out way around since we came in a side/back door. Once we found our way to admissions, she is screaming again, remembering she has a dirty diaper & sore bottom. I handed her off to Mama for her to change her diaper while I check her in & she is screaming "Mama, Mama" as they walk away. That was a first & it just broke my heart.

So we arrived at Same Day around 10:30am & I heard her cry out my name many more times after that. Anytime Chris would take her from my arms, a nurse or doc would need to examine her & each time it still broke my heart. It makes me feel good knowing she needs & wants her Mama but also lets me know she is started to reach the age of getting scared & unsecure. She didn't cry for me 5 weeks ago when we were here, so she has grown up a lot since then.

Surgery Scheduled

I just spoke to the surgeon & he has scheduled Emma for her 3rd open heart surgery on Thursday. I must say I have never been so happy to hear that Emma would have surgery until now. We were really concerned after speaking with him last night that he may send us home today to only come back in a couple weeks. He normally only does additional surgeries after 6 weeks post-op & Emma will be 5 weeks tomorrow. I asked him if there was any risks we should be concerned about & he said no. He really would like to wait a few months before going back in but since Emma is losing weight she needs surgery now & we totally agree.

I don't have any details on her surgery as for what time but his secretary is suppose to give me a call later today with all our instructions for pre-op tomorrow & Thursday. He did tell us he is planning on patching as many holes as he can instead of using a open heart cathe device. The echo pictures he got yesterday were some of the best he has seen of Emma yet & he told us there are many holes, more than he knew about so it will be a difficult patching process but its the best route for Emma.

Please keep us all in your prayers as we go through this again. We feel so sorry for Emma having to endure this again so soon after her last surgery but is totally in her best interest so she can thrive & grow. This is all for you baby girl!!!

Beginning to look like Christmas

at least on my blog it is, but not at home. I had a little trouble picking a Christmas theme this time but since Emma is really enjoying seeing Christmas trees & we are trying to teach her what Santa says, "Ho, Ho, Ho", I thought this fit pretty well. I am eager to get home & start decorating for Christmas (although the tree will have to be in the kitchen again, still lacking) but also wondering what it will be like this year with a little one who is crawling, pulling up & starting to cruise on furniture (just started that within the last week). I really hope she doesn't use the tree to pull up on.