Tuesday, February 16

Sorry I haven't updated over the last week...been busy with Emma.
We thought we were ready to come home on Thursday, February 4, but Wednesday night ended up being a set back. Emma developed strip pnemonia, which ended up keeping us in the hospital another week. They moved her back into ICU on Sunday, February 7 and stayed there until Wednesday the 10th. They put her in ICU to get more intense suctioning of the lungs and to have more personal attention. So, on the 11th we came home, and she is doing fine. Her incisions on the chest are healing well, especially the chest incision. She's scooting around, full of smiles and back to her regular sleeping patterns, along with a healthy appetite as before.
She goes for her first post hospital visit check up on Wednesday, February 17, so hopefully we can ween her off a couple of meds she was sent home with.
Thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts and prayers throughout this life experience. I am very lucky to have as many great people in my life that care so much. Thank you always for your support!
Julie-this post is especially for you! Thanks for being a devoted follower and friend!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Today we haven't seen much change - yesterday was kind of a set back. From around 3AM until 6:30AM, doctors were in and out running test and poking at Emma. Apparently she had some fluid between her lungs and skin so they did a procedure to insert a chest tube to allow from drainage. On top of the procedure they ran 2 EKG's, ultrasound, bloodwork and an echogram. The echogram showed a bit of fluid behind the heart, so they started an IV drip and medication to treat that. After all the morning comotion on Thursday it stayed fairly quiet.
Emma (and mom) slept well on Thurday night - few interuptions. The bigs events for Friday consisted on getting the IV removed, weening off the oxygen, and 2 sedatives - pretty bad when one gets excited for a bowel movement, but Emma was having some pretty bad gas pains that have seemed to subsided, thanks to a little help. Emma got out of bed today and sat on my lap, and when Michelle came to visit, she walked into the room and cracked a smile and reached to sit on Michelles lap - could have been the cookie she offered her.
Head RN hinted that we are looking at Monday for a go home date now - they want to make sure her blood cultures are all negative and they will do another heart ultrasound, and if everything looks good, then we get to finally go home. In the meantime, living in the lap of luxory in my recliner chair that doubles as a bed, and fine dining thanks to the cafeteria and Subway. Fun stuff - almost as fun as our trip to China - at least I didn't lose my passport!

Tuesday, February 2

Today was a good day, after a panickying call last night. I had finally fell into a deep sleep last night when my phone went off at 11:15. It was a 313- number - the only 313 to be calling at that time would be the hospital. Before I could answer it, the call went to voicemail. I call the number back immediately, where I reached the ICU unit of the hospital. They tracked the nurse down that called, the nurse that was taking care of Emma. She was calling to let me know that Emma was moving rooms and to give me the new room number - no emergency. Talk about your heart jumping out of your chest.
But today was good. She is in the non-less serious side of ICU. Today she had all her chest tubes taken out (4) and has been weaned off all but 1 med. Everything is looking good - she is very tired and I'm guessing sore. When the doctors made their rotation today, everything was looking good and reading good. Dr. Walters, her surgeon and the chief surgeon, told me that we should be going home probably on Friday, possibly Thursday. She ate some solid food today and drank juice and kept it down. Otherwise, she was very laid back falling in and out of sleep all day.
Tomorrow they are guessing that she will be moved to a regular floor room in which I will be able to stay the night with her. For now, tonight will be my last night in International Housing.
Say prayers...

Monday, February 1, 2010

Today was a good day for Emma. The doctors removed her LAP tube - left artery pulmunary tube that was attached in the heart. They also removed the venilation tube from her nose, so she is breathing on her own now. They are slowly weaning her off the drips and meds. After the nurse gave Emma her bath today, I was able to hold her for the first time since Friday. She didn't want to lay back, but sit up, so that is good. She wasn't up long though and fell back asleep. She looks more peaceful today then she has the last couple of days. The nurses says that alot of times after the venilator comes out they tend to sleep alot. Tomorrow they are planning to remove so chest tubes for her, and hopefully by Wednesday we will be moving to the step down room.
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and keep them coming - they seem to be working!

Sunday, January 31

Today was a pretty uneventful day. Emma continues to be sedated with the nurses making few changes in the amount of drugs being given. The plan is on Monday to take the tube out of the left artery and slowly wean her off other meds with hopes of slowly taking out the other chest tubes. Not sure how much longer we will be in ICU; a couple of days at least.
Me on the other hand, I woke up with pink eye in my left eye and looks like it is starting in the right eye tonight. Besides that, mom and I are doing a lot of sitting which tires you out. We ordered out Pizza Popalis for a late lunch/early dinner. It is very nice because several of the restaurants around here deliver to the hospital. Once again, I can not say enough about the staff here - they are great and thorough in what they do. Today we were talking to the doctor on call (who was also in surgery with Emma), and he is actually from the same province as Emma - Nanchang. So lucky for us, he has taken a special interest in Emma, and we have had some nice conversations about China.
Thank you once again for all the thoughts and prayers - keep them coming!

Saturday, January 30

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Friday was a very long day. We left the house at 4:45 to head to Children's Hospital in Detroit. A little after six they started working on getting Emma ready for pre-op, taking her back to continue with pre-op at 7:15. She had about 2+ hours of just pre-op, inserting lines and such, before the actual surgery started. At 9:15 Dr. Walters, head surgeron of cardiology, had his assistant walk us back to his office. He talked to us about changing the plan for surgery. From the test they had run, the left ventricle appeared to be of normal size, which they had previously thought was smaller. Because of this, he wanted to go ahead and do a full repair of the heart rather they doing the repairs in 2 separate surgeries. Fine with me - signed more paper work and then went back to the waiting room. At 9:55, Colleen, the operating nurse, came out to let us know that the surgery had started and that the chest cavity was opened. At 10:55 Colleen came out again to let us know that they were starting bypass - meaning the blood was being circulated through a machine rather then the heart. We did not hear from Colleen again until almost 4:00, when she let us know that the repairs were done and went well, but they were not going to close her up for a few more hours because they wanted to make sure there was no extra blood standing in the heart cavity. At 5:20 Colleen came and got us and let us see Emma before they rolled her up to ICU - I could tell a huge difference in her color already - she is now pink instead of blue. We then went to the Family Center to wait yet again to be able to go to her room in ICU. At 6:45 we were finally let back to her room - the nurses and doctors had used this time to get her settled and hooked up to everything. The doctor was in the room when we arrived and explained that the procedure consisted of him repairing/rebuilding the left artery - the left artery was almost closed and useless, meaning hardly any blood was getting to her lung. He opened the left artery up for blood flow and placed a patch on the left artery to keep the left artery open for proper blood flow. He then inserted a human valve to assist with blood flow as well - the unfortuate thing about this is that it will need to be replaced periodically as her body grows, so she will have to endure more surgeries over the years.
When we arrived at the hospital this morning, after staying in our steller college dorm-like room and International Housing, which is only a few steps away, we received the report that she had a good night with little changes.
The doctor was in around 8:00, making rounds shortly thereafter and informed us that she is doing well for this point in time - she is in moderate danger, which is where she should be at this time after surgery. He is very positive that the surgery went well. The staff here is amazing - very helpful and considerate - definetly the place to be with a child.
That's all for now - we just sit today since they are keeping her sedated.
Will give an update later tonight.
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers - keep them coming!

Thursday, January 28 - Night before surgery

Hello again everyone -
Today Emma had her pre-op appointment down at Children's. Luckily, they sedated her to run all the test, otherwise I'm sure you would have heard her in St. Clair, or wherever you live. While she was under sedation they did an EKG, chest x-ray, blood panel, and inserted in IV port.
We will arrive at the hospital a bit before 6AM on Friday and they will take her right in. From there, they will do pre-op surgery "stuff" and take her into the operating room between 7:15-7:30ish. From there, the doctors perform open heart surgery to repair the left artery and insert a shunt. From surgery they will wheel her to ICU, which will take about another hour and a half to get her situated, then mom and I will be let in to see her. Prayers are welcomed and needed. I'll post an update tomorrow evening after we get kicked out of ICU - which is 8:00.