Go Figure

Last night Heather went to her parents to get some rest and both Lillian and Matthew were up all night. I spent the entire night running between their rooms. Heather is at the hospital with me tonight and both kids are sound asleep.

Lillian has made progress today. It was a long and difficult surgery but she is doing remarkably well. She is on 1.5 liters of oxygen with an o2 sat of 98% to 100%. Her chest tube was removed this morning and her meds have been decreased. She is however sad today and continually asks to go home. I think that she'll be much happier tomorrow after finally getting some much needed sleep.

Matthew's a crazy guy. He was extibated this morning and has continued to make progress. The docs do not allow a patient to eat or drink for several hours following extibation. It's never known if the patient will regress and need to be reintibated. After approximately 4 hours post extibation, Matt was overwhelmed with hunger and tried eating his oxygen mask. When that did not satisfy him, he tried eating the tubes. A few minutes later his doc gave the okay for solid foods and juice. Matt drank pedialyte, ate a few crackers and went to sleep. It has been about 4 hours and he's still sound asleep. His surgeon will order the much anticipated ct scan tomorrow or Friday. We'll know at that time if the surgery was a success or if more intervention is needed.

Marissa has spent the day with her cousin Emma. We thought it best to let Matt and Lillian rest today. She will come up tomorrow.

Lillian and Matthew are improving!!!

Lillian was extibated tonight and is doing okay. She has a reactive lung so the docs are not allowing her to drink anything yet. She keeps waking up and asking for water and it's difficult to tell her no. Hopefully she'll continue to progress throughout the night and tomorrow will be a better day.

Matthew is still on the vent. His doc is planning on extibating him tomorrow. Matt must be off of the vent before they can do the ct scan. The objective of the surgery was to alleviate the pressure on his airway. The ct scan will gage the size of his airway. It will be compared to his pre op ct scan to determine improvement, if any.

Marissa visited earlier today and did better than expected. We were concerned that Lillian and Matt's chest and breathing tubes would scare her but she did not even notice. She was just happy to see that her sibling were okay. She misses her big sis and asks about her constantly. If Lillian feels better in the morning, we're going to let Marissa spend a little more time with her sis tomorrow.

The lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with us. We're doing our best to pace ourselves and Nana has been a big help.

Happy Monday

Morning came so early. At 5:08 I woke up and realized that my alarm didn't go off at 4:40. Matt and I got out the door a little late but that just meant that they hospital was really ready for us when we finally checked in at 6. So we were a half an hour late. Matt went in a little after 8 and is expected to be in surgery for 8 1/2 hours. That puts us at 4:30 this afternoon when he should get out.
Lillian looks great! She had a great night and the surgeon is planning to close her chest when he is thru with Matt's case. She moves every once in a while and even woke up last night. She is under medication so that even if she wakes up (which she isn't supposed to do yet) she won't remember anything. It gives her amnesia. So more later. Philip and I are so tired.

4 hours Post Op

It has been 4 hours since Lillian's surgery and she is doing well. She is behaving (medically speaking) and we are hopeful that she will recover quickly.

We appreciate the calls of conern and your continual prayers.

Hope?

Lillian's surgery is whinning down. She came off of bi-pass but her chest will be open. We are hoping to be able to see her in 1 1/2 hours. She will have a long hospital stay ahead of her. Matthew is still on for tomorrow.

Complications

The surgeon's nurse came out and gave us an update. Lillian is not doing well. There are complications getting her off the heart and lung machine. Her blood pressure is off which could cause her to stroke. The surgeon is taking out her stents, which you can't do without removing that part of her pulmonary artery. They are putting in a patch like Matt has over the pulmonary arteries. The patch is not as extensive as Matt's. She will be on the heart and lung machine a long time which causes her body to swell. This means she will come out with her chest open and possible be on ecmo. They say another 2-3 more hours...

Still waiting

It's 2:20 and still no update from the doctors.