Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Update 2

I called the ICU around 4:45 after not receiving a page for awhile and they told us that Teag was off bypass and being 'packaged up' to move to the ICU. There was some confusion with the whole paging system and we thought that her surgery was taking much longer than expected. As it turns out, once she was on bypass her actual repair only took around 45 min. Surgery was started at 1:30, she was on bypass at 3:15 and off by 4:00. Her chest was closed and they moved her to the ICU by 5:30.
The anesthesia team had a really hard time getting her lines in and it took almost 3 hours to get her prepped and ready and this is what delayed the whole operation. Teag has always been a 'bad stick' when they're trying to get blood draws, etc... and when she was hospitalized for the last surgery they had a hard time as well. They were unable to get an IJ line in (central line in her neck) but they tried several times so she has a nice mark there. They were also unable to get any lines in her hands/wrists so she has several marks there as well. She ended up with a line in each groin (one is her arterial line, the other is her central line) she also has a peripheral iv in her left foot. The good news I guess is that her hands are free to suck her fingers when she's able to.

Dr. Permut met with us before we went back to see her and he said that her surgery went really well. There was a fair amount of scar tissue to get through but once he was able to get to the heart, things went quickly. Dr. Cohen (the lead cardiac surgeon here) also scrubbed in on her surgery once things were started and he said that Dr. Permut did the cleanest Glenn disection he'd ever seen! The only negative aspect that happened was when they were closing her up. When they have the chest open during surgery, they cover the surrounding skin with a sticky protective sheath. Well when they went to take the sheath off, it ended up taking part of her top skin layer with it leaving her with a nice patch of raw skin that looks like a bad sunburn. Poor girl! So they have a wet looking bandage just laying over the area right now to help it heal.

I tried to prepare myself for what Teag would look like post op but I don't think that ever gets easy. We were allowed in to see her around 6:30 and it was heartbreaking. She looks good for what she's been through today, but still tough for mommy to take. She is still intubated (through the nose) with an NG tube in the other nostril for suction to keep her tummy empty. Her chest is closed with no outer stitches and her incision looks really good. (way better than last time) She has the wet bandage with gauze over it where the 'sunburn' rash is. This time she has 3 chest tubes in- left, center and right. (last surgery she only had 1 in the center) She has her art. line and central line in her groin area, and then the one iv in the left foot. They also left in her catheter for now to measure her urine output. She is pretty swollen from the mid-chest up and also her left leg is really swollen. They said that because the central line is in the main leg artery that its blocking some of the blood flow and thus causes some swelling.

She's asleep now, but she has been in and out of 'awakeness' and in some visible pain. Since she got out of surgery so late in the day the plan is to try and extubate in the morning. They're weary of doing it tonight mainly because there's just not that many people around if something were to go downhill. Since she will be intubated overnight though, they're able to give her more pain meds and keep her as comfortable as they can. I told the nurse that Teag is fiesty and she said that it was obvious with the way that she was trying to wake up. Its a good sign though that even with everything going on she's still our little sassy girl! When I rub her head and talk to her she opens her eyes but you can tell that she's uncomfortable. So Trent and I have been taking turns holding her little hand, and she's been squeezing it really tight! All of her numbers are really good right now and everyone is pleased with how she's looking. We'll know alot more once she's extubated and breathing on her own again.

Thank you to everyone who has checked in on us today and kept Teagan in your prayers. Her surgery went as well as expected and so far she is doing great! I'm not quite ready to post a pic of her yet, even though she's looking beautiful to us! Hopefully my post tommorrow will be of her sweet face with no tube! Here's a pic of her and I this morning before we headed to the hospital. Thanks again to Nana for the 'Team Teagan' gear!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought about Teagan all day and prayed several times for a successful surgery. So glad she did well and will be praying for a speedy recovery. Krista

Anonymous said...

Susie Q - You guys have been on my mind since last week and I am constantly praying for all of you! I had a dream early Friday morning that I was up there with you and we had a Team Teagan. I was shocked when I saw your Team Teagan shirts as that was almost identical to my dream! As always I am thinking about you and Teagan around the clock and I am so glad that so far everything is looking on the up and up! Stay Strong!

Love Always,
Jenn