Wow, alot has happened in the past week. Demeter had surgery on Thursday, and it went "exceptionally well". She was only on the heart-lung machine for 50 minutes, and her heart was only stopped for 20 minutes.
Since then her recovery has been somewhat slower than expected. It's taking a while for her heart to get used to the hole being fixed, and they've had to give her alot of extra fluid (in the form of albumen) to keep her heart from getting too stiff. It's kind of complicated to explain, but suffice it to say, for the past couple days she's been looking like the michelin man. Today she's been peeing it off, and if she does well, they might extubate her tomorrow.
We also found out today that she has a small residual hole that may or may not close over on its own. It's between the sutures and about 3 mm long and very thin. This is really dissapointing, but it probably won't affect her heart function. Basically, in order to keep her heart stopped for as short as time as possible, and considering that her hole was quite large, they can only suture it so tightly.
The nurses in the ICU are truly amazing, and I feel that she's in great hands. Chris and I are alternating nights spent in the teeny parent room there, but I will be staying at the hospital once she's awake, so I can be there to nurse her when she's ready - I can't wait!
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Demeter is the name of the ancient Greek goddess of the harvest
Introduction
Demeter had two holes in her heart - an ASD and a VSD. She had open heart surgery to close the holes when she was three months old. This blog has two purposes:
1. Letting everyone in the family know what's happening with Demeter, in more detail than we might have time to give on the phone. 2. To serve as information for the parents of other babies with congenital heart defects, so they have an idea of what to expect before surgery and during the recovery period.
Demeter is the name of the ancient Greek goddess of the harvest
2 comments:
A sigh of relief that everything went so well.
I'm sorry it didn't go perfectly though. I hope you're able to nurse your sweet baby really soon and that she improves quickly from now.
The unknown Aussie
Even though I never post a comment, I check regularly for an update on little Demeter. I am anxious to hear that she is doing better every day and that the whole family will be able to breathe again soon.
Post a Comment