Logo

We were so excited to come home from a long weekend in California and see our sweet girl. She had a good time with MeMe, PawPaw, Beebs, Gran and Grandpa Barry while we were gone. She is entering the seperation anxiety/favorite person of the moment phase so it makes this interesting. Either way, she was excited to see us, Nana and the dogs. The night went fairly normal until 3am…and the crying started. continue reading »

Our first full day in the Intermediate Care Unit (IMC) is blissfully uneventful.  Adalyn now 75% back to her former happy self is content to hang out in her crib.
continue reading »

Geek stayed with Adalyn over night, and mommy got some sleep at the Ronald McDonald house.  Overnight we had two nurses again, Ronnie and Becky.  Other than an incident with RT turning off her air without warning, Adalyn had a great night.  We have now dubbed RT the air ninjas and have posted signs reminding them to leave her air alone.  continue reading »

Wednesday.  Our night nurse, Joyce was wonderful and our day nurse was Anne.  We finally got to feed Adalyn late that morning.  She didn’t need a lot of extra pain meds during the day and was only occasionally awake.  When she was awake, she was still very out of it.

The doctors continue to be pleased with her progress.  She still has a lot of tubes and wires that need to come, but today isn’t the day for that.

still in:

-chest tube and JP drain

-four pulse ox leads (head, kidney, hand and foot)

-Arterial line, central line, periphial line

- leads to monitor vitals

- and O2, which we expect to go home on again.

Even with 7 weeks in the NICU under our belt, this surgery caused some serious anxiety.  It took everything in me not to grab Adalyn and run out the doors yesterday morning.

continue reading »

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.