Day 5 &6

Another day in the hospital... It looks like we won't be heading out until tomorrow. Madeline is doing great but they want to cut one of her medications from 3 times a day to 2 and want to keep her another day to make sure she handles the lower dosage okay. Other than that everything is perfect. She is back to her normal self even though a little more tired because of some of the medications. Yesterday was spent visiting with lots of family and friends. It made the day go by super quick. We really appreciate everyone who came by! (Oh and as you can see she got her thumb back!)

Day 4: Move to Recovery Floor

That's right. It has been a busy day around here, in a good way. Madeline started the day by having her final chest tube removed as well as her pace wires. She then had an echo cardiogram to check out everything is going. After making sure that everything was a go we moved her up to the recovery floor. She is still on oxygen and sounds like she will go home with it. She also has her IVs still in but other that that she is looking fairly wireless compared to earlier. Her arrhythmia has been great since she was put on some medication and everything seems to going well. We have a tentative date of going home on Sunday or Monday which would be great. Also we now get to hold her which I was missing a lot. She started to act more like herself being more alert and starting to coo again. Hopefully she keeps on doing awesome and we get to go home before Aaron starts school.


Also they brought a mobile in to keep her entertained. I wasn't sure what she would think of it because we don't have one but I think it was a hit. See what you think.

Post-Operation

Day 2: Madeline is doing great. They pulled her oxygen tube last night and all of her stats were steady last night. She was a little agitated when we showed up this morning but Aaron started bouncing her and I sang and she calmed down. The only problem is she doesn't want us to stop bouncing her. It looks like Madeline will be getting her blood pressure tube, her CV line, and her catheter out sometime today. She seems to be having a slight reaction to the morphine with a slight rash on her face. The nurse said it could make her itchy, which is also possibly why is has been more agitated and swiping at her face. For now Dad is bouncing the mattress/her and she is asleep. Lets hope everything continues to go well.



Post Operation Day 1

Post-op Day 2 morning

First Feeding after operation

Dad and the magical bounce.

Surgery

January 3, 2011

UPDATE:

Well, Madie is out of surgery and off of the heart-lung bypass machine and is being transferred to the ICU where she will begin her recovery. It seems that the surgery has gone well. This is the update that we got from the nurse, we have yet to talk with the surgeon to get a precise post-op summary. About another two hours and we can see her in ICU.

Well Madeline is in surgery now. We checked in at 6:00 AM this morning. We met with what seemed like 20 doctors and nurses but what was really 5 or 6. We got the entire explanation of everything that will/is happening. (This is a short synopsis) She will be put to sleep and then they will put in all of her IVs, breathing tube, and the ultrasound camera. When everything is ready they will begin surgery. The have tubes that they hook up to her veins and arteries into her heart. Those will hook up to the bypass machine where they will give her a blood transfusion. They will make the first incision now the middle of the chest then stop her heart to operate. The surgeon will then rebuild the center of her heart using a harvest from the sac outside the heart called the pericardium. They will soak it in solution to make it stronger and more usable and then sew it in. They will separate the tricuspid and mitrol valves and sew everything back up. When they release the clamp on her aorta the warm blood will restart her heart. Awesome I know. They will clean everything up then take her to nicu where we will get to join her. So far the anethesia has gone perfectly and the first incision is made. We are on our way.


Heading into surgery