Post op pics and update

 

I'm not sure everyone would agree, but Emma really does look great.  Let's see if I was listening close enough when the nurse explained everything to me... The thing on her forehead is measuring the O2 in her brain.  The tubes in her nose are the ventilator.  On her neck is a line going to the heart (circular shaped white disc).  On her chest there are EKG leads that monitor the rhythm of her heart.  There's also two blue discs with wires coming from her chest and those are the pacemaker wires, those connect to a small box on either side of her then have larger wires that go to a box at the foot of the bed which is the external pacemaker.  The tube is a drain tube from the chest, yes that's blood please don't pass out reading my blog!  She has a central line which takes constant BP's in the heart and might serve some other purpose too... I think... On her left arm the white gauze is covering her PICC line which goes to the heart and will be the access point long-term (however long we're here we hope) so that they don't have to keep doing IV's.  In her left hand is another IV but it's not hooked up to anything at the moment.  She also has a pulse-ox wrap on her left thumb.  On her right hand is an arterial line which is an IV basically, but in an artery not a vein.  She also has a pulse-ox on that thumb.  She has a splint on that arm so she won't bend it with the a-line in.  Both her arms are restrained and I'm SO THANKFUL she was never restrained in Ukraine or I would feel horrible for that-- but she is SO QUICK that I know she'd mess with stuff if she could.  She has a catheter which has a thermometer on it so 2 for 1 there.  And a blood pressure cuff on her left ankle which usually correlates with the arterial pressures.

Emma got some blood which was a mixture of her own blood and 'pump blood' from the surgery afterward and is now on Milrinone and Dopamine and then pain meds as necessary.

Emma has stirred a few times but is being kept sedated for a while.  She's not breathing against the vent so they plan to keep her on it a while, probably try to get it out in the morning.  She just stirred enough to get some morphine and her BP was elevated so she seems to be resting better now.   They're going to kick me out from 7-9 for shift change (HIPPA stuff, they're open rooms and we can't hear what's up with other patients).  I think Mike and I are going to go out to eat, just the two of us, and celebrate our little girl. 

God is good... all the time.