The drainage tubes are out and the Nitric Oxide is gone. The only things left are the pacing wires, the IV's, and the intubator. They have the pacing machine set at 100 bpm, and it's really just being used as a back-up. When we were there today, she was doing everything on her own. She awoke quite a few times and the last time she was awake, she was pretty upset. It seemed to me that she was mad about still being intubated. We were told that if all goes well, that'd be removed within the 24 to 48 hours. She's anxious to get it out. It was heartbreaking to see her upset, and know there wasn't much we could do for her.
Today, she held my finger. It was pretty amazing to have that connection again. Hopefully soon we can pick her up and hold her again. It's wild to see her growing and yet saddening to see how much we've missed as a family in her 14 weeks. It's all that much more we'll have to do to celebrate when finally get out of the hospital, and are all together full-time.
4th Birthday Photo Session
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
A Good Day
The Bean had a good day today. The paralyzing med's are wearing off and she opened her eyes and moved her head & feet while we were there. Although she was totally doped up, she knew we were there. The surgeon took out the other tube that was inside her heart. Tomorrow, the drainage tubes will come out. They are increasing the medicine that helps her lungs, and weening her off the NO.
She looked good. It was a good day. We could use a lot more of them!
She looked good. It was a good day. We could use a lot more of them!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Bean-no Viagra!
*sing along*
"Bean-No, Bean-No VY-Agra
Bean-No, Bean-No VY-Agra!"
Yes, indeed. The Bean is now on a drug that is essentially Viagra. It's too funny, yet, not funny at all. Yesterday afternoon, the Bean did not have a great time. Essentially, they were starting to push her, and in true Bean form, she said, 'nuh-uh, o' no you didn't!' like my brothers new friends from the Wendy's down the street, (personal joke that I can't explain!). She fought back and so they decided, it was time to slow things down. So, the Bean's lungs weren't ready to be off the Nitric Oxide, which is respiratory stuff that combines with the O2 - to help her lungs. Today, they introduced the Viagra stuff that medically helps with the pulmonary arteries & vessels in the lungs, and as they increase that, they will wean her off the NO. They started a new potassium-sparing diuretic to help her pee off excess fluid. She's still pretty puffy, but her kidneys have awoken and her urine output is good. They think that once she gets more of this fluid off of her, her lungs will have an easier time. She's still in Heart Block level 1, which means that her upper chamber is talking to her lower chamber, but the signal is a bit slow. Therefore, her heart is being paced, just a little bit. It is thought that as her heart continues to heal, that connection will speed up. We have to keep in mind that her body has been through a severe traumatic surgery, and it will take awhile for her to get back up and running, especially since her lungs weren't 100% going into this surgery. So, we have to take time with our Bean. She's going to dictate the speed at which things happen. And yesterday, she told them to slow it on down.
Tomorrow they will remove the other tube that is up inside her heart. From there, they will remove some of the drainage tubes that they aren't really using right now. However, that heart tube has to come out first, so they can monitor bleeding through the drainage tubes. Sorry if this is a bit too graphic. They are also going to wean her off the paralytic medicine, but still keep her sedated. Her body feels cold to the touch, but I think that's because of all the med's and such. Her temperature is normal. Lastly, she still has a central line, an ART line, an IV, and another line going into her groin. Some lines are for blood draws, some distribute the doping drugs, it's just amazing how many things she is plugged into right now. I just hope that she continues to get stronger, and fight her way back from this horrid experience. As her auntie calls her, she is a warrior princess, strong & beautiful. She will succeed. I just hope she doesn't have an erection lasting longer than four hours.
"Bean-No, Bean-No VY-Agra
Bean-No, Bean-No VY-Agra!"
Yes, indeed. The Bean is now on a drug that is essentially Viagra. It's too funny, yet, not funny at all. Yesterday afternoon, the Bean did not have a great time. Essentially, they were starting to push her, and in true Bean form, she said, 'nuh-uh, o' no you didn't!' like my brothers new friends from the Wendy's down the street, (personal joke that I can't explain!). She fought back and so they decided, it was time to slow things down. So, the Bean's lungs weren't ready to be off the Nitric Oxide, which is respiratory stuff that combines with the O2 - to help her lungs. Today, they introduced the Viagra stuff that medically helps with the pulmonary arteries & vessels in the lungs, and as they increase that, they will wean her off the NO. They started a new potassium-sparing diuretic to help her pee off excess fluid. She's still pretty puffy, but her kidneys have awoken and her urine output is good. They think that once she gets more of this fluid off of her, her lungs will have an easier time. She's still in Heart Block level 1, which means that her upper chamber is talking to her lower chamber, but the signal is a bit slow. Therefore, her heart is being paced, just a little bit. It is thought that as her heart continues to heal, that connection will speed up. We have to keep in mind that her body has been through a severe traumatic surgery, and it will take awhile for her to get back up and running, especially since her lungs weren't 100% going into this surgery. So, we have to take time with our Bean. She's going to dictate the speed at which things happen. And yesterday, she told them to slow it on down.
Tomorrow they will remove the other tube that is up inside her heart. From there, they will remove some of the drainage tubes that they aren't really using right now. However, that heart tube has to come out first, so they can monitor bleeding through the drainage tubes. Sorry if this is a bit too graphic. They are also going to wean her off the paralytic medicine, but still keep her sedated. Her body feels cold to the touch, but I think that's because of all the med's and such. Her temperature is normal. Lastly, she still has a central line, an ART line, an IV, and another line going into her groin. Some lines are for blood draws, some distribute the doping drugs, it's just amazing how many things she is plugged into right now. I just hope that she continues to get stronger, and fight her way back from this horrid experience. As her auntie calls her, she is a warrior princess, strong & beautiful. She will succeed. I just hope she doesn't have an erection lasting longer than four hours.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Back Up & Running
I felt I should ask permission to share our day, as I hear we have readers from all over. Thus, out of respect to the whole dang family, I have to watch my typing. So, I sit here with my editor filter in the "on" position, and I was cleared to share a edited glimpse of our most interesting day yesterday.
Yesterday marked our 5th wedding anniversary. Five years. Wowza, where has time gone? My side of the family has been with us this week, while we march thru Andi's surgery, together. Well, yesterday morning we were going to get up early, go out to breakfast and then head up to the hospital to spend our day bedside of the sedated Bean. Our day did not work out that way, at all. Oh no, not even close. I came downstairs to start to get ready for the day to find water coming through the ceiling above our washer & dryer. Pouring through from the bathroom upstairs. I yelled, in my own tried and true ultra feminine style (that's sarcasm for those whom don't really know me), and the man hopped to with towels, to try to soak up the water as it came cascading down. I ran upstairs to the bathroom, again, using my very special vocabulary, and tried to see what was causing the leak. I plunged the toilet, filled with water, and it would not go down like a good lil' bowl full of water. And I looked into to bathtub to find it was starting to back up too. Freaking out, we called our bestest contractor friend to come advise us useless homeowners whom have very few 'fix-it' skills. He came and checked it out and said, 'call Roto-Rooter'. We did. Well, at the start of a holiday weekend, staffing was apparently a little underdone, so we waited, and waited, and waited. Well, the boys ended up waiting and the girlie girls went to calm down by spending time with our zen-inducing Bean.
Long story short, our neighbor has a Laurel tree and its roots have grown a glorious ball inside our extremely old sewer line. A 1924 house was not built with a sewer trap where you can access the line from the side of the house. Oh no. That'd be too easy!!! The dill weed that showed up (from Salem - about 50 miles south of here), had to call for back-up, because he didn't want to get on our roof solo. The manly-man, a.k.a. 'back-up' plumber, hopped up on the roof, accessed our line from a vent and they were able to clear a good chunk of the roots so that our plumbing would work. However, our super duper fix-it friend is coming next week to install a big ol' sewer trap next to our house so they can come back within two weeks with the bigger blade to clear more roots out. Doesn't that sound like fun?! But the problem is fixed for the most part, the effected areas have been cleaned, sanitized, sterilized. The jokes about marriage and plumbing problems have started to become old. But, what a most memorable 5th wedding anniversary. The man and I went out for a spectacular dinner at Ruth's Chris. We have a tradition of trying out the different steakhouses on special occasions and discuss who we think is the best and why. My filet was the best I've ever had... but I think we liked the overall, we like El Goucho (or as I lovingly refer to as, 'el gauge-o the wallet-o'.)
best. Then we went out for a glass of wine at Noble Rot, where we ran into a Bean-loving fan, Kari. Halfway through our glass of wine, it was determined that we both really wanted to see the Bean, so by 9 p.m. we were on our way up to the hospital. It was a true celebration then, as we are incomplete without our Bean. If only the Mad-dog could have been there, it would have perfect. We didn't stay long, but were able to spend a few quiet precious minutes with our butter bean.
As for what you'd really rather read about, how's she doing?! This morning I took my parental unit to see her prior to taking them to the airport to catch their flight home. When we walked in, a plain-clothes Dr. we haven't met was tending to the Bean. Turns out he's one of the surgeon's, and he was going to take a tube out of her heart. I haven't written graphically about all she has going on other to say that she has a lot of tubes coming out of her. There are quite a few tubes & wires, and they will pull them out as she gets better and no longer needs them. It is my understanding that they will close like an earring hole closes, obviously much faster than that. So, she had one tube removed today, and will have another one removed from her heart tomorrow. The attending today said that slow and steady with our Bean is the way to go. We need to slowly take her off of stuff as to not stress her at all. During rounds this morning, which had my brain oozing out of my ears, and I honestly felt my IQ dropping as I did not understand 98% of what they said, they determined that they are going to work on getting her off the intubator. So, soon, she will be breathing on her own again. They say she's doing great.
So, we're back up and running ... in more ways than one. Bean is doing great, our home is still intact, and we're trucking onward & upward toward a full recovery.
Yesterday marked our 5th wedding anniversary. Five years. Wowza, where has time gone? My side of the family has been with us this week, while we march thru Andi's surgery, together. Well, yesterday morning we were going to get up early, go out to breakfast and then head up to the hospital to spend our day bedside of the sedated Bean. Our day did not work out that way, at all. Oh no, not even close. I came downstairs to start to get ready for the day to find water coming through the ceiling above our washer & dryer. Pouring through from the bathroom upstairs. I yelled, in my own tried and true ultra feminine style (that's sarcasm for those whom don't really know me), and the man hopped to with towels, to try to soak up the water as it came cascading down. I ran upstairs to the bathroom, again, using my very special vocabulary, and tried to see what was causing the leak. I plunged the toilet, filled with water, and it would not go down like a good lil' bowl full of water. And I looked into to bathtub to find it was starting to back up too. Freaking out, we called our bestest contractor friend to come advise us useless homeowners whom have very few 'fix-it' skills. He came and checked it out and said, 'call Roto-Rooter'. We did. Well, at the start of a holiday weekend, staffing was apparently a little underdone, so we waited, and waited, and waited. Well, the boys ended up waiting and the girlie girls went to calm down by spending time with our zen-inducing Bean.
Long story short, our neighbor has a Laurel tree and its roots have grown a glorious ball inside our extremely old sewer line. A 1924 house was not built with a sewer trap where you can access the line from the side of the house. Oh no. That'd be too easy!!! The dill weed that showed up (from Salem - about 50 miles south of here), had to call for back-up, because he didn't want to get on our roof solo. The manly-man, a.k.a. 'back-up' plumber, hopped up on the roof, accessed our line from a vent and they were able to clear a good chunk of the roots so that our plumbing would work. However, our super duper fix-it friend is coming next week to install a big ol' sewer trap next to our house so they can come back within two weeks with the bigger blade to clear more roots out. Doesn't that sound like fun?! But the problem is fixed for the most part, the effected areas have been cleaned, sanitized, sterilized. The jokes about marriage and plumbing problems have started to become old. But, what a most memorable 5th wedding anniversary. The man and I went out for a spectacular dinner at Ruth's Chris. We have a tradition of trying out the different steakhouses on special occasions and discuss who we think is the best and why. My filet was the best I've ever had... but I think we liked the overall, we like El Goucho (or as I lovingly refer to as, 'el gauge-o the wallet-o'.)
best. Then we went out for a glass of wine at Noble Rot, where we ran into a Bean-loving fan, Kari. Halfway through our glass of wine, it was determined that we both really wanted to see the Bean, so by 9 p.m. we were on our way up to the hospital. It was a true celebration then, as we are incomplete without our Bean. If only the Mad-dog could have been there, it would have perfect. We didn't stay long, but were able to spend a few quiet precious minutes with our butter bean.
As for what you'd really rather read about, how's she doing?! This morning I took my parental unit to see her prior to taking them to the airport to catch their flight home. When we walked in, a plain-clothes Dr. we haven't met was tending to the Bean. Turns out he's one of the surgeon's, and he was going to take a tube out of her heart. I haven't written graphically about all she has going on other to say that she has a lot of tubes coming out of her. There are quite a few tubes & wires, and they will pull them out as she gets better and no longer needs them. It is my understanding that they will close like an earring hole closes, obviously much faster than that. So, she had one tube removed today, and will have another one removed from her heart tomorrow. The attending today said that slow and steady with our Bean is the way to go. We need to slowly take her off of stuff as to not stress her at all. During rounds this morning, which had my brain oozing out of my ears, and I honestly felt my IQ dropping as I did not understand 98% of what they said, they determined that they are going to work on getting her off the intubator. So, soon, she will be breathing on her own again. They say she's doing great.
So, we're back up and running ... in more ways than one. Bean is doing great, our home is still intact, and we're trucking onward & upward toward a full recovery.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Deep Sleeping.
Bean has started the slow recooping process. She's doing 'well' so far. She's been through major surgery, traumatic surgery, invasive surgery. Therefore, she has started to swell -- natures way of protecting itself. She is on a lot of monitors, a lot of med's, and has more medical visitors than ever. Some are just social calls, checking on the sweet Bean. She is super sweet. However, when she gets mad -- everyone is going to know it. I found it funny to hear today from her PICU nurse that a nurse from another floor warned her not to anger our Bean.
I spoke to the Bean today, and she started to stir. We don't want that right now, so I tried to talk her into sleeping through as much of this as possible. I tell her to fight when they tell her to, but do not fight the Dr's & nurses. At this point, they're keeping her asleep, relaxed, and at a point where her body has the least amount of work to do. It's time to start healing.
I spoke to the Bean today, and she started to stir. We don't want that right now, so I tried to talk her into sleeping through as much of this as possible. I tell her to fight when they tell her to, but do not fight the Dr's & nurses. At this point, they're keeping her asleep, relaxed, and at a point where her body has the least amount of work to do. It's time to start healing.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Out Of Surgery
Surgeon said things went well. They will monitor her closely these next few days. She's been moved to PICU and we can see her in less than an hour! They will keep her asleep for the next few days, allowing her body to calm from the trauma of massive heart surgery. Now we ask for a speedy and overwhelmingly miraculous recovery!
Let the healing begin!
Let the healing begin!
Coffee Bean
The Bean is still in surgery. We sit here and wait for our updates every 1.5 hours. It's been a very long day. The IV they put in late last night did not work, so they spent a majority of the early morning trying to get a new one in. Each attempt consisted of one nurse holding down her arms, one nurse holding down her legs, and one nurse attempting to place the IV. It took four teams, and the fourth team got the gold star. I maybe got a 1/2 hour of sleep. I could care less though. Today is all about the Bean. The Bean and lots of hot coffee.
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