Grant and I got pretty decent sleep last night, mostly because we were so exhausted!
We made it back to the hospital for rounds at 7am. When we arrived at the hospital the nurses said Emerson did ok, but he was requiring a lot of support on the ventilator. The doctors rounded and said that his stats had looked good through the night but he is requiring a little extra support from the ventilator, so it will probably be a few days before he is taking off the breathing tube. They did increase the pressure on the ventilator, which will help him take deeper breaths and he may be able to go down on the oxygen. There seems to be a little more fluid in the right lung so his diuretic was increased to try to excrete the fluid through his urine. If that doesn't work, they may have to put a chest tube in to help excrete the fluid.
After Emerson's surgery, Dr. Walters did prepare us for the possibility Emerson may develop Pulmonary Hypertension. This is basically extra blood flow. The pulmonary arteries that take the blood flow from the hearts right side to the lungs is not suited for the increased pressure from the extra blood flow now that is hole is repaired. He was starting to show signs of this last night, so they put him on Nitric Oxide. This will relax the blood vessels and help the flow of the blood in the lungs.
The doctors did also mention possibly metabolic acidosis, which is a condition that occurs when the body produces too much acid or when the kidneys are not removing enough acid from the body. This usually happens when infants are put on/off bypass. They monitor this with blood tests on his gases. His gases all looked good today!
The day was a little trying at times because of our roommate. There was a 2 year old girl next to us that was also a cardiac patient. We met her dad when we first came in, and he was super nice to us. Told us he has been where we are and to not worry because we are in the best place. He knows what we are going through so if we need anything to let him know. They live close enough that they can bring us anything if we need it. I thought that was so nice! His daughter was on her 3rd heart surgery :( Well her mom wasn't so pleasant. She had one of those extra loud voices or maybe she just didn't know how to use her inside voice! She was abusing the two visitors rule as well, which normally I wouldn't be so petty about. But when you have a small room with two patients, a nurse for each patient, and 2 visitors, plus all the equipment...it gets a little crowded! Now for a mother that has had a child with three heart surgeries, you would think she would know what those first few post op days are like. But her voice kept carrying, and the 4 sometimes 5 people visiting would each be holding separate conversations , and the noise kept building. At one point they even woke Emerson up and the nurses had to give him sedation only an hour after his last dose. And we were doing great with 3-4 hours between doses before that. I was really starting to get irrated.
I was in no shape emotionally to be dealing with that. So I expressed my concern to the nurses. The woman was asked to lower her voice and limit her guests on a couple occasions, but her voice never changed. She kept acting like she had some seniority around the hospital. At one point, the music therapist was in the room and they put on music to drown her out, and she just talked over it. I had to walk out of the room a few times because I was going to lose it. Thankfully she was switching shifts with her husband shortly after that, so left for the night. We will see what happens tomorrow. Maybe we should tell her husband, yes we have something you can help us with. Get your damn wife under control!
Always something right? lol
The music was nice though. But also triggered me. There were lullabies playing, and it made me so sad that I couldnt snuggle Emerson and rock him to the lullabies. So I had my first meltdown. I went out into the family center and cried it out. After a little breather, I tried to go back in to his room. But as soon as I sat down I started crying again. So I stepped into the hallway and had the biggest hyperventilating cry ever. Emerson's nurse from the night before came and gave me a hug and some tissue. It all was just hitting me, the surgery, how post op was going to be, what hes gone through, and how I just want to rescue him but I cant. You can try to prepare for this, but you can never prepare for the emotional part. I just wanted to see those beautiful eyes and hold him. He's only 5 months old, why is this happening to him?! He's so precious and innocent and doesn't deserve it.
So you could say that my evening was a little hard. Ok a lot hard. So Grant decided we need to leave the hospital for dinner and a much needed beer. And I have to say, it was probably the best thing for both of us. We ended up at Forans, where I thoroughly enjoyed a burger and beer! Cheers to making it to this point!
One day at a time. Heck one hour at a time. Thats all we can do :)
We made it back to the hospital for rounds at 7am. When we arrived at the hospital the nurses said Emerson did ok, but he was requiring a lot of support on the ventilator. The doctors rounded and said that his stats had looked good through the night but he is requiring a little extra support from the ventilator, so it will probably be a few days before he is taking off the breathing tube. They did increase the pressure on the ventilator, which will help him take deeper breaths and he may be able to go down on the oxygen. There seems to be a little more fluid in the right lung so his diuretic was increased to try to excrete the fluid through his urine. If that doesn't work, they may have to put a chest tube in to help excrete the fluid.
After Emerson's surgery, Dr. Walters did prepare us for the possibility Emerson may develop Pulmonary Hypertension. This is basically extra blood flow. The pulmonary arteries that take the blood flow from the hearts right side to the lungs is not suited for the increased pressure from the extra blood flow now that is hole is repaired. He was starting to show signs of this last night, so they put him on Nitric Oxide. This will relax the blood vessels and help the flow of the blood in the lungs.
The doctors did also mention possibly metabolic acidosis, which is a condition that occurs when the body produces too much acid or when the kidneys are not removing enough acid from the body. This usually happens when infants are put on/off bypass. They monitor this with blood tests on his gases. His gases all looked good today!
The day was a little trying at times because of our roommate. There was a 2 year old girl next to us that was also a cardiac patient. We met her dad when we first came in, and he was super nice to us. Told us he has been where we are and to not worry because we are in the best place. He knows what we are going through so if we need anything to let him know. They live close enough that they can bring us anything if we need it. I thought that was so nice! His daughter was on her 3rd heart surgery :( Well her mom wasn't so pleasant. She had one of those extra loud voices or maybe she just didn't know how to use her inside voice! She was abusing the two visitors rule as well, which normally I wouldn't be so petty about. But when you have a small room with two patients, a nurse for each patient, and 2 visitors, plus all the equipment...it gets a little crowded! Now for a mother that has had a child with three heart surgeries, you would think she would know what those first few post op days are like. But her voice kept carrying, and the 4 sometimes 5 people visiting would each be holding separate conversations , and the noise kept building. At one point they even woke Emerson up and the nurses had to give him sedation only an hour after his last dose. And we were doing great with 3-4 hours between doses before that. I was really starting to get irrated.
I was in no shape emotionally to be dealing with that. So I expressed my concern to the nurses. The woman was asked to lower her voice and limit her guests on a couple occasions, but her voice never changed. She kept acting like she had some seniority around the hospital. At one point, the music therapist was in the room and they put on music to drown her out, and she just talked over it. I had to walk out of the room a few times because I was going to lose it. Thankfully she was switching shifts with her husband shortly after that, so left for the night. We will see what happens tomorrow. Maybe we should tell her husband, yes we have something you can help us with. Get your damn wife under control!
Always something right? lol
The music was nice though. But also triggered me. There were lullabies playing, and it made me so sad that I couldnt snuggle Emerson and rock him to the lullabies. So I had my first meltdown. I went out into the family center and cried it out. After a little breather, I tried to go back in to his room. But as soon as I sat down I started crying again. So I stepped into the hallway and had the biggest hyperventilating cry ever. Emerson's nurse from the night before came and gave me a hug and some tissue. It all was just hitting me, the surgery, how post op was going to be, what hes gone through, and how I just want to rescue him but I cant. You can try to prepare for this, but you can never prepare for the emotional part. I just wanted to see those beautiful eyes and hold him. He's only 5 months old, why is this happening to him?! He's so precious and innocent and doesn't deserve it.
So you could say that my evening was a little hard. Ok a lot hard. So Grant decided we need to leave the hospital for dinner and a much needed beer. And I have to say, it was probably the best thing for both of us. We ended up at Forans, where I thoroughly enjoyed a burger and beer! Cheers to making it to this point!
One day at a time. Heck one hour at a time. Thats all we can do :)
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