Post-op Day 5

Today is a big day for Miss Rebekah! She is on the schedule to have her arterial lines removed! This means that she will only have a chest tube and a couple of other IV's left. The doctors continue to be baffled by her up-and-down pressures, but overall Rebekah is tolerating it well. So, they are going to leave well enough alone and maybe bring Rebekah back in a few months for a heart catheterization to see how the pressures look over time. Of course, Rebekah will have frequent check-ups and echocardiograms at her cardiologist's office at home, too.

So from what Dr. Graham said this morning, Rebekah will hang out here in the PCICU for the rest of today and tonight. They plan on making the "big move" upstairs to 7C sometime tomorrow, if everything still looks good.

Rebekah still has a lot of junk in her lungs that needs to be coughed up. Her respiratory therapists have been great about working on it, but she's still not over it yet. There is still a collapsed area in her left lung as well.

As far as when we will come home.....we're really not sure! Once Rebekah gets to 7C, she will need to have her chest tube removed. That won't be done until it has not had any drainage at all for at least 24 hours. Rebekah is still running a fever off and on, so that will have to go away before we can leave. And, of course, the lung congestion has to be cleared up, too. So, depending on how quickly Rebekah can get through those hurdles will determine how long we stay here.

The big prayer request for today is......sleep! Rebekah has been awake for almost 24 hours, with the exception of a few cat naps. What she needs is to really sleep for several hours, or overnight. Last night she wasn't fussy or crying, but she didn't sleep, either. Apparently, she and her nurse had a little party. We came in to find Rebekah and her bed all decked out with fuzzy blankets, hair bows and bracelets. There were also cheerios all over the floor. Even Dr. Graham commented this morning that they are not used to a crunchy floor during rounds. :) So far today Rebekah has been very restless and not sleeping more than 15 minutes or so at a time.

Hopefully we will have a very peaceful, uneventful and sleepy day!!

Nancy

P.S. In between writing this post and getting it published, Rebekah had a little "blue" spell. She woke up after a short (10 minute) nap and was very fussy. Her heartrate shot way up and her O2 sats dropped to the upper 70's. Dr. Graham was right there and turned her oxygen up and we get her calmed back down. The bottom line is that she has got to clear the junk out of her lung to get over this hump. Hopefully she will feel more like moving around later when her lines come out.