Peri-cardial Effusion

Ada went for her post-op check up today. They did her chest x-ray and her heart is larger today then it was on discharge. That is not good. She has a moderate amount of fluid around her heart. They put her on some prednisone to try to help. If the fluid doesn't come off then she will have to have a drain placed to pull off the fluid. Which means another hospital stay. I hope that the prednisone works. Unfortunately I put some of the medicine in her bottle and she would not take it. AARGH! So we get to go back to Primary's next week to see if the steroid is working. The good news is she is over 12 pounds, so she is growing slow but sure.

Discharged Home!

Yeah we are finally home! Ada's abdominal xray looked good again today. So they said she could come home. She is still having diarrhea, but if it persists we will follow up with her pediatrician. She looks so good. When we got her in the house she was relieved she started smiling and talking. I think she missed being at home. We will go for a follow up visit to the surgeon's clinic on the 23rd of July. We are so glad to have her home.

One More Day (hopefully)

So Ada's blood work and abdominal xray all came back normal. The doctors want to watch her another day to make sure that nothing's wrong. She is completely off of oxygen and is only taking tylenol for pain. She is doing so well. Hopefully she won't have anymore bloody stools. She is so dang cute!

Can You Do This?

Hey Grandpa Woodruff, could you do this after your open heart surgery? Tonight has been another rough night. Today she had blood in her stool, not a lot at first, but her last diaper had bright red blood in it. So it is 10:30 at night and we drew more blood for labs and went down for an x-ray of her tummy. What next? Other than that she is doing so much better. She feels better I can tell. Today she was rolling all over her crib. She's amazing. I hope that we can figure this all out so that we can get her home!

A New Day

Andy stayed with Ada last night. He said that she had a great night. If it weren't for all the hospital interruptions she would have slept through the night. The nurse practitioner pulled out her pacer wires. These are wires that sit right on the heart so in case that the heart is not beating properly they can send an electrical current to help the heart beat appropriately. She does not need them anymore. Her chest x-ray looked better today, but there is still some fluid around her right lung. So they are going to continue with the iv lasix today. She is going to have an echocardiogram done. This is an ultrasound of the heart. It takes pictures of the heart to make sure that it is beating well and can see the vsd repair to make sure the surgical site looks well. It also shows the direction of blood flow to make sure that its going in the right direction. She is more comfortable and does not seem to be in much pain. She is eating well also. I think that we have turned a corner and that she is on the up and up. I cannot believe how fast she has recovered. We want to thank all of you who have prayed in our behalf. Thanks to family who have helped with our other children and neighbors who have mowed our lawn and those who have lent a listening ear and given us support. We could not have done this without you. And of course we need to thank our Heavenly Father who has blessed us in so many ways. When I look back and think wow how did I do that, I know that the Lord helped pull us through. THANKS!!! MUCHAS GRACIAS!! SPASEEBO! (Andy says that is how you say thank you in Russian)

Still Truckin'

Last night was a little better than the first night. She slept really well until midnight. Then the nurse came and checked her vital signs (which all look good) so Ada woke up. I fed her a bottle and we gave her some Tylenol. I laid her back down and she didn't go back to sleep. She was antsy and fussy. That was how it was the rest of the night. She would cough and wake herself up. Now the diarrhea has started. (OH NO!) I would have to hold her standing up and bouncing to get her to calm down. Her chest xray this morning showed that she has a pleural effusion which is fluid around her right lung. So they have put her back on lasix iv. Hopefully that will pull off the fluid, if not then they will have to put in a chest tube. I pray that IT WORKS! Last night when she would cry she would say, "mmmommm." It was so sad! But I will say, that she wants to play with her blankets, which she has always done at home. So one small step back will hopefully lead to one GIANT leap forward.

Rough Night

Ada had a hard time last night; she took her bottle, but threw up twice. She just couldn't get comfortable. She would come close to settling down, only to wake again in pain and thrashing. We think maybe the Lortab didn't agree with her stomach. The nurses came in around 4 AM and her blood had a high PH level so they thought maybe she would go back to the PICU. The next blood had a higher PH so they kept her and we are using ibuprofen for pain control. She just isn't comfortable but she is resting. We just got back from an ultrasound; her arm is mottled and they wanted to check for clots; they found none. Things are looking up, the ibuprofen is working better and they are taking her chest tube out here in a few minutes.

Day 2 continued....

We now have transfer orders to move out of the ICU. She will be going to the third floor for the rest of her hospital stay. Everyone has complimented on how well she has done. The nurse just removed her arterial line. She has eaten two bottles, (very quickly I might add) so now we are just waiting for a room to move her upstairs. The nurse practitioner even mentioned the possibility of going home tomorrow. (Wouldn't that be something?) Oh and by the way, I got to hold her for a few minutes during her first bottle and it was amazing!!!

Day 2

Ada did really well throughout the night. She was breathing really slow so they waited to remove her breathing tube until morning. We had to wait until after 8:00 am to see her because of shift change, but when we came in she looked like this. They had extubated her and she was so happy!! The nurse gave her some more morphine and Tylenol and now she is resting. The doctors came and rounded on her. They said that she is doing so well. She is on lasix which is a diuretic to pull off fluid. They turned off the mironone which is a drug that makes the heart squeeze better. If she does well with this off then they can take out her iv in her neck. Her urinary catheter also gets to come out. She still has a chest tube which is draining blood from her chest. As soon as the bleeding slows down that can come out. She might can be transferred out of ICU later tonight. She is so dang strong. We should be able to feed her around 12:00pm today. So we will see how she does.

Surgery Day

Ada went for surgery to repair her ASD and VSD. Dr. Burch did the surgery. We had to be up to Primary Children's at 10:30 am on Monday. Her surgery was scheduled for 12:00pm. She was very well behaved even though she was STARVING. We talked with the doctor and he told us about the procedure. I was so nervous. Then the anesthesiologist came and talked with us. We walked with him down a large hallway. He then told us to give her a kiss and say goodbye. I started to cry, thinking "Here stranger take my baby and make sure you take good care of her." And he took her away. About an hour and a half later we got the update that the surgery was starting. She did so well. The actual surgery was shorter than expected. When I finally got to see her for the first time she looked great! The doctor put a stitch in her asd and a patch in her vsd. These links best describe what they did. www.pted.org/?id=ventricularseptal1 and http://www.pted.org/?id=atrialseptal1. We are so greatful for all the prayers for Ada. We have felt the Lord's presence through all of this.