October 19
In our last update Hannah was in
the PICU a couple of days out from surgery.
We are still in the PICU. It took us a while to find the right
“cocktail” of medicine to keep Hannah happy.
It was difficult to figure out which ones worked and which ones had no
effect on her. All of the medicines they
have Hannah on this time are different from last time so it took a few days,
but we finally got it sorted out. It was
a much different experience in the ICU this time than it was last time. After her first surgery we were assigned all
the nurses that had ample amounts of experience and this time I felt like we
had the nurses that were fairly new. I kept
reminding them to take her milk out of the freezer and bring her pain meds.
They were very sweet and nice but lacked the experience we were spoiled with
last time.
Not as swollen as last time, but still pretty puffy
October 20
This morning they told us we will
be transferring out of the ICU into the heart center. However, an hour later they changed their
mind. They wanted Hannah to get off one
of her medicines before we left the ICU.
October 21
This morning they actually
transferred us to the heart center. It
feels like “home” in the heart center, we know all the nurses and they know
us. When we were transferred only one of
Hannah’s pain medicines was transferred with us, Lortab. The first thing the heart center nurse said
to us when we got there was “I think she is in pain, let’s get her more
medicine. The ICU nurses are too stingy
with her meds; Hannah has a pretty high tolerance to pain medicine.” It is so nice to have a nurse that
understands my little Hannah. Her nurse
had to call the nurse practitioner and get a special request for more
medicines. We had to continue this
throughout the night and give her several doses of morphine just to get through
the night.
Hannah had a difficult night,
despite her nurses being a little more generous with her pain medicine. She was awake (screaming most of the time) from
2 AM until 6 AM, which means so was I. I
would get her back to sleep and lay down, but as soon as I started to fall
asleep Hannah was awake again. On top of
her having a rough night one of Hannah’s IVs in her arm went bad, so we had to
remove that, AND her central line that they have going directly into her heart
wouldn’t draw blood anymore. They
usually like to have this central access so they can draw labs and see what
levels are low, her line was still “good” but it wouldn’t let us draw any
blood. Her nurse was worried the doctor
would want labs bad enough they would have line team come in tonight and stick
her. Thankfully the doctor had been
involved enough with Hannah tonight to know they didn’t want to bother her any
more than they had to. So, they gave us
the ok not to do labs tonight. She came
off her nasal cannula this morning, but they decided to put it back on her late
this afternoon because she was screaming so much and kept dropping her oxygen
levels.
We were able to get Hannah to
have three stinky diapers tonight! I
know that isn’t something you normally report as exciting; but when it’s been
three days and we have given laxatives, stool softener, and a suppository all
three days, it’s nice to finally see Hannah get some relief. The diapers were so impressive we just
wrapped the dirty diaper up in the blanket we changed her on and threw the
whole blanket away.
October 22
This morning they decided to
double Hannah’s Lortab dose in the hopes that this would help her be more
comfortable. Originally the plan was to
remove Hannah’s drainage tubes in her chest today, but after last night she had
too much volume coming out for them to feel comfortable removing them. They decided they didn’t need more labs, so
they gave the go ahead to take out her line in her chest.
Hannah seemed to be feeling
better today so I asked if we could try just giving her Tylenol instead of the
Lortab. I think the Lortab is giving
Hannah an upset tummy. She immediately
seemed happier.
Sorry it is sideways, I recorded it sideways on my phone so it wont rotate
October 23
Hannah had a rough day this
morning; she didn’t want to eat and hadn’t had a stinky diaper in two
days. We have continued to give her
laxatives, stool softeners, and a suppository.
I also decided to give her some apple juice to hopefully help things
along. It took a few hours, but finally
we had some success. Two stinky diapers
later and it was like we had the old Hannah back, she was so happy and wanting
to play. She was on minimal amounts of Tylenol;
she could have it every 4 hours but only needed it every 6-8 hours
instead. It’s so nice to see her happy
again.
October 24
Hannah got her chest tubes out
today!! She is so happy to have her
chest tubes out; she is eating much better and is back to bending in half and
holding her toes. All the nurses that
walked by peeked in Hannah's room and laughed saying “she is a whole new baby!”
She loves bouncing in her bouncy, she gave the nurses a good laugh.
We had made plans with Tina and
Doug to have Jack come home tomorrow because Tina needs to go back to work on
Monday. We keep hearing that there is a
possibility we will go home this weekend, so hopefully that will happen.
October 25
The nurse practitioner came in Hannah’s
room this morning and asked us “how would you feel about going home
today?” I laughed and told her
sarcastically that I would be devastated.
Ethan’s response…”that is like asking someone if they want their double
cheese burger with or without bacon; always with bacon!” Come to find out the heart center was booked
to capacity and the ICU wanted to transfer 6 new kiddos up to the heart
center. Hannah’s was the only room that
was potentially coming available soon, so I think they wanted us to leave so
they could have our room. I am alright
with being pushed out of the hospital after only seven days!
So they said as long as Hannah’s
chest x-ray looked good we could go home.
So the rest of our day was spent taking Hannah to x-ray and waiting
around for our discharge papers. We
finally left the hospital around 5 PM; we got home about the same time Jack,
Tina and Doug did. It was so good to be
home and to have only been gone a week this time!
We had given Hannah two doses of
Lortab today because she was crying a bit more than usual (the second dose was
on the way home in the car and all we had was her Lortab). BIG MISTAKE!
I had already made the realization that Hannah didn’t like Lortab and it
made her feel sick, I must have just had a major brain fart today.
She cried all night long because
the Lortab made her feel sick. Sweet
Tina stayed up with Hannah all night long and held her upright so she could be
comfortable until the effects of Lortab wore off. I kept getting up and trying to give Tina a
break and her response was “no, you go to bed I can sleep on the way home. I only get a weekend.” It was so nice to have another mother in the
house to help me help Hannah get through the night. Hannah finally seemed to feel better around
2:30 in the morning.
October 26
Today has been a better day;
Hannah is eating like a champion. She is
still a little cranky because she is having a hard time readjusting to sleeping
in her crib with big brother running amuck throughout the house; overall though
we are all happy to be home. Thank you
everyone for the prayers and support, Hannah made it through this surgery
exceptionally well.
I know this is random, but I forgot to mention this a few posts ago...Jack is potty trained, as of September 25! Woo hoo, it only took 5 days to completely potty train him and he hasn't had an accident since. He is two and a half and was ready before I was, but I am so glad to only have one kiddo in diapers.
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