Day #1 Post-Op

11:19 p.m.
Wow!  I can't believe its that late already!  A lot has happened since I last posted, but I never had time to get on here and do an update.  What a long day.  Let's see, late this afternoon she went to have her CT.  Scott was with her as it was my turn to run over to The Ronald McDonald house and shower.  When they had about 1/3 of the IV contrast infused, her IV infiltrated.  :-(  The test had to be stopped and they could not use any of her other 3 lines because they were currently is use.  So, back to her ICU room she went only to have to have that IV pulled and a new one put in.  :-( again!  She was very nervous about getting the IV because here they use a J-Tip instead of Emla cream to numb the site.  Daddy was volunteered up by the IV gals to get a J-tip to show Shelby it was no big deal.  That was an amazing moment.  I was in awe of him as he stuck out his hand and just had it done.  For her.  What love.  What a Daddy!  Precious love is what it is.  Back to my story, once she knew Daddy was o.k. with getting the J-tip she was a willing participant.  An IV went in easily in her left hand and then she had an albumin infusion to help pull all the fluid she's been getting out of her tissues and back into her bloodstream.  She had been getting a bit puffy.


Around 9 p.m. we took her over for the CT and all went well.  We heard word from the resident that her graft (shunt) looked GREAT, but there is still quite a bit of "normal" intraabdominal inflammation so no progressing to clear liquids yet...only continuing with the swabs of water.  Shelby's not happy about that because in her mind she already had a date set up with a ton of ice chips, but she's being a really good sport about it. 

She's been moving quite a bit on her own and is using her spirometer really good.  She is on 3 liters of oxygen now; up a bit, but still acceptable.  

Praying for a restful and healing night for my girl....

Man I miss Riley & Avery (really BAD) so if you're lucky enough to cross their paths, please give them extra hugs and kisses from their Mama. 

12:35 p.m.
She's moved a bit around in bed and is napping right now.  Hopefully later we can get her sitting up in bed.  Haven't heard her ultrasound results yet.  We got a room at the Ronald McDonald House - yea!  Scott headed over there to take our luggage and shower.  

That's all for now!  She's napping so I'm going to also!

Surgery 3

8:55 a.m.
Long night...it just didn't seem to end.  Welcome to the life of the ICU!  Day=Night=Day=Night.  Whatever.  We'll get straightened out eventually.  That doesn't matter right now.  Healing is what matters.  A nice balance of rest and some movement today is what matters.  Appropriate pain management is what matters.  That smile that creeps up on Shelby's face when she talks to her sisters on the phone is what matters.

We all did get some sleep beginning around 1:30 a.m.  Scott headed out to the waiting room to sleep and I snoozed by Shelby's bedside.  Shelby slept until 5-ish and then went back to sleep until about 7, but spiked a temp of 102 around 6:20 this morning.  Several blood cultures have been drawn on all her lines to check for infection, but they say that it can still be a "normal" response to the surgery and the "trauma" her body has been through.

Today she will have an ultrasound (ouch) to make sure that the blood flow is good at the "new" connection.  I'm told there will be "preparation" for that in regards to making sure she is all dosed up on pain meds for that.  She has been trying to work on taking some deep breaths, but has discovered that it is painful to cough and is NOT a happy camper about that one.  During one coughing episode her O2 sats dropped to 86% and she was upped to 2 liters of O2 for a while.  She's back down to 1 liter now and her sats are hanging out at 95%.

They were concerned about her amount of urine output so they have been giving her 350 mL boluses of fluids.  Last night when we fell asleep she was up to 1400 mL on those!  She is peeing, but not enough.  No signs of fluid retention, though, and her bp is good.  A CVP (central venous pressure) monitor was hooked up to her central line last night to get a more accurate measure of her hydration status.  It showed that it was low.  As of this morning, she has not had any more boluses and the word I've heard so far is that her urine output is better.

This will be a long, tough day for her.  She will (hopefully if the ultrasound looks good) get her NG tube out.  Please pray that there is great blood flow in her shunt.