Logo

Adalyn was out of surgery and settled into the PICU by noon on Tuesday.  Heart babies are extra special in the PICU, in fact many hospitals have a special wing for heart patients.

The PICU at Dell Childrens is great, each child has their own room closed off with large glass sliding doors (much like the ones in the show House)  In between the rooms in a small station for the nurse to sit that has a window into each room.  While they have the capacity for 24 patients, only about half the rooms are full.  We arrived just in time to see them transitioning the white board assignment board to a fancy touch screen flat panel.

Her first nurse, Kathy, has specific heart/post-op training and was paired with a new nurse in training.  Courtni had worked with heart patients at her former hospital, but DCMC requires them to go through the training again.  We were glad to see the extra attention.  Adalyn started off with a morphine drip, a med to open her veins (milrinone), and the occasional shot of versed.  She was still on a ventilator and had an NG in to help keep air out of her tummy.  She also had a chest tube, a JP drain, and a variety of sensors all over her body.  It was actually a lot less overwhelming than I thought.  Much of the equipment we had seen before and the nurse we spoke to during the pre-op appointment did a great job preparing us for the rest.

Adalyn was pretty out of it the rest of the day.  She was extubated around 4, and the feeding tube was removed.  The evening was difficult because she was hungry and they were not allowed to feed her.  Even though she was receiving hourly shots of morphine and versed, her sleep was restless.  When she did awake, she was very agitated.  She moans in her sleep at home, but all through the night she moaned this sad little noise.  I knew it was mainly hunger.  Greg and I slept in the room with her.  Beyond the hunger cries, it was pretty uneventful.  Dr. F came to see her a couple times and everyone has marveled at how well she was doing so far.

Geek, +1 and I met with the surgeon Monday afternoon.  Her entire medical team agree that surgery is necessary, and while it is not an “emergency” surgery, the sooner the better. continue reading »

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” A. Haley

The last weekend in April was a rare and precious time for our family.  Adalyn got to meet her great great grandfather.   Born in 1911, William Bodenhamer was brought up in a different era.  Refrigerators were known as “ice boxes” because they still used ice to keep things cold.  Milk was delievered daily.  Taking a train was a big deal, and phones in the house was still an extravangance. 

I had the pleasure of spending a good amount of time with this man as I grew up.  Although he has had empasema for many years, he remained head strong and ornery.  He also adapted with the times, he continued to drive until last year, learned to use a computer and even became adiccted to the internet and email.   

In October of 2009, Alma, his second wife of 30+ years passed away.  At the time they were both still living at home with little assistance.  Since then his health has been declining greatly.  I have been wanting to take Adalyn to see him since we brough her home, but we also had to make sure it wouldn’t jeopardize her health or his.  As his 100th birthday rolled around, we knew it would be the perfect opporunity.  Finally cleared for travel, we embarked on our first non-medical road trip. 

Friends and family from all over had come to celebrate his 100th birthday.  Even Dad and the boys were in from Indiana.  Adalyn and Big Daddy loved all of the attention.  They also enjoyed meeting each other.  She sat like a good girl while he held her for a photo op.  Afterwards he sat and watched her play for quite some time. 

We knew this was an important day.  While she will not remember this, he will and I will. 

This morning I recieved word from my grandmother that William Bodemhamer passed in his sleep last night.

At first, I was convinced that Ady was going to favor her Daddy.  As she gets older, I really like she is starting to look like me.  What do you think? continue reading »

I found this great little animation http://kidshealth.org/misc/movie/parent/ASD.html   Alsom here is some information on Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) that I stole from the UT Southwestern Medical site.  continue reading »

Adalyn was a true rockstar today.  Everything about today was incredibly smooth.  We arrived at Dell Children’s at 6am, amazingly we were able to keep Ady entertained enough that she did not fuss about being hungry(NPO since midnight).   continue reading »