Day #2 Post-Op

12:36 a.m.
Wow!  How fast things can change in the ICU - for better, in Shelby's case!  Since I last posted, she Skyped her Uncle, Aunt & cousins and her sister and grandparents, got a blood transfusion, had much success with the Lasix, began respiratory therapy, moved from bed to a chair successfully, STOOD on her own power, helped get herself back in bed, sat up and played on the computer, had more respiratory therapy, got up again - STOOD - and got herself completely situated in bed.  


Thank you everyone for your prayers!  We sure felt them!  Scott & I even snuck away for supper at 11 p.m. in the cafeteria together.  :-)


I have some great pics from all her accomplishments this afternoon, but am too tired to post them.  They'll have to wait until tomorrow.

3:46 p.m.
Doctors are not considering it pneumonia, but are concerned enough to give her a few doses of Lasix, a blood transfusion and begin chest therapy (respiratory therapists pounding on her chest).  :-(  Please pray.

Oh yeah, her fever has been back today, too.

3:22 p.m.
What a shitty day!  She did get out her arterial line (good), but when we went to move her from laying in bed to sitting in a chair her O2 sats dropped down to 71%! (BAD)  The doctor was called in to listen to her lungs.  Things sounded good in there, but the plan to sit her up was abandoned.  She immediately fell asleep and has been for about 3 hours now.  She is on 5 Liters of O2 and and an O2 mask for blow-by air!  Finally, in the past 20 minutes, her sat alarm has stopped going off because she was dropping below 90%  A chest x-ray was done and the preliminary report says that it shows some pneumonia in one lung.  Also, her hemoglobin has dropped so a blood transfusion is being considered.  


After the whole trying to move her fiasco and her sats dropping so low, I went out in the hall and had a nice, long cry.  Enough to have the chaplain come and take me to a quiet room and bring me juice & cookies.  Yup, stress sucks.  Seeing your precious child hurt and not doing well sucks.  Prayers please for strength for all of us.

5:42 a.m.
Trust me, I'd rather be sleeping right now.  Shelby woke around 4 a.m. well-rested and wanted to sit up and watch TV.  So she did.  She did great.  She used her spirometer and was afebrile.  Then about 4:20, she started itching...and itching...and itching...and crying because she couldn't get all the itchies.  Thank God there was already an order for IV Benadryl.  While we waited for that to kick in, the nurse and I tried to keep her from scratching herself raw.  We pulled off her gown, rolled her to the side to allow her back to breathe a bit and put ice packs all over her to cool down the "hot" spots.  It was pretty intense.   We also hit her pain button to give her more meds to make her drowsy.  I'm told its a common side-effect of her pain medication, Diluadid.  

Great.  While writing this, I just noticed her itching again in her sleep so the nurse is calling the pain management team to find out what the next step should be.  Poor kid.