Day After Surgery

Sophia is doing well.  As well as can be expected after open heart surgery.  The doctors and nurses are hoping to have her taken off the ventilator by this afternoon.  They are giving her less and less morphine at this point and will switch her pain meds to Tylenol and Codeine.  They keep warning us that it is not unusual to have to re-insert the ventilator on some kids.   It’s all up to Sophia as to her progress and she will tell us when she is ready.  The tube that is causing me the most distress is the IV in her neck.  I just want to fast forward to the part when she doesn’t have these damn tubes.

The night nurse was asking us if she was held and coddled a lot at home.  Because she just wasn’t settling herself down…no matter what drugs they gave her.  The way that they finally settled her down was by placing a heavy blanket on her.  Since she was moving around a lot there was a lot of seepage of blood from her wound area but that seems to have slowed down/stopped now.  All her vitals are looking good.

I have to say that I love this hospital and their staff.  They are beyond wonderful.  Just a few examples to mention.  Yesterday when we were waiting with Sophia before surgery a life specialist came looking for us.  She had down in her chart that Sophia had 2 young siblings so she came by to pick them up.  She had volunteers ready to bring them to the playroom so us parents could be solely with Sophia.  Isn’t that crazy nice?  Since we had brought them with us to the hospital the last 2 visits I guess the cardiac team thought we were bringing them again and arranged that.   Another thing that happened last night was that they brought Sophia a special homemade quilt for her to use and to bring home with her after the operation.  The quilt is beautiful and has patches of hearts on it because she is a cardiac patient.  Now common, is that the greatest or what?  Not to mention that they have thought of everything for the mamas and papas.  In the ICU waiting room there is a room dedicated to breast pumping.  All the equipment you need, the containers, labels, etc… So they make it so easy for mamas to step out and pump every few hours and take the milk back to the ICU fridge, ready to give to your baby.  Also they had a tray of sandwiches in the ICU lounge for families to eat.  As well as coffee, tea, water, etc…  They just try and make it so much more convenient for the families in these hard times.