A New Space for a New Season
1 year ago
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Better results
I talked to the nurse later on last night and Teagan's new labs came back much better. Her potassium is still a little elevated but her levels were half what they were on the first draw. So we get to spend the weekend together here at the RMD house resting and relaxing. I'm not sure yet if we're going to be admitted monday evening or just show up tuesday morning, I'm just so excited to have Teag with us here for a few more days!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Crazy Pre-Op Day....
Whew.... today was crazy...The good news is that we are back in our room at the RMD house after 10hrs at the hospital- and Teagan wasn't admitted!
We made it over to Seattle yesterday and got checked in to the Ronald McDonald house. This trip we managed to get a big room in the newer house up the road from the hospital and it is awesome! I didn't even know what the RMD house was before we had Teagan, and now its such a life saver when you're away from home for so long! So next time you drive thru Mc D's- drop a few coins in the RMD charities box... they do wonderful things!
Now for our day... The plan was to check in at 9am to be admitted and have all of our pre-op testing done. I didn't understand why they wanted to admit her 5 days early for us to just sit in the hospital room around all the germs, etc... and be miserable! So after a few hours and a few discussions with the dr. and various nurses they decided that we will come back on monday to meet with the surgeon and then discuss admission. (yay!) Before they had decided to let us go, we had been sent to our hospital room on the floor to wait... I just left Teagan in the stroller and then held her. I didn't even want to touch that bed because I was determined to keep her out of there this weekend!
We went to the cardiac clinic for a chest x-ray, ekg, and vitals. Teagan is officially 12lbs 8oz and her sats were reading in the upper 70s! Then we headed over to the pass clinic to meet with anesthesia and wait some more. There's talk that we might not have to show up for admission until the day of surgery and if thats the case, they'll give Teag gas to put her to sleep before they poke her at all! (my first choice of course!) If they admit her monday, they will probably start an iv that night in the hospital room... :(
Our last stop of the day was up to the lab for bloodwork. This is the appointment that I most dread! I wasn't too anxious though because Teagan usually does really well with the heel poke thing. So we got called back, the guy did his thing and 4 vials later we were out of there without one cry!
We got back to the room to finally let Teagan nap and eat around 4 when my phone rang. The nurse said that Teag's potassium levels were extremely high on the lab results and we needed to come back and re-do the labs. She said that sometimes when they draw from the heel the potassium readings are off/high because the squeezing of the heel causes the platelets to break and release potassium giving a false high reading. So to avoid this they needed to draw from Teagans arm just like they do for adults... :( The nurse practitioner was nice enough to meet us downstairs and put some lidocaine gel on both of her arms to numb her up before hand since they don't do that in the lab. So we got the gel on her and waited around 15min. for it to work then went back for the draw. The lab tech banded her arm and tried twice to get it and couldn't... Teagan was really really upset so I told him that we wanted someone else and to stop. Trent and I went over to the Giraffe wing to get some sweeties for her and calm her down and then went back to the lab to try again. The new tech looked at her arm and tried to see a vein and couldn't find one, so he told us he'd have to go in through her hand (not numbed). He got it after a few minutes and our little trooper made it ok. She was really upset for awhile but managed to crack a smile as we made it back to our room. She got a badge for being so brave and its so fitting,"hero!"
Teagan is fed and asleep now and I'm waiting on a phone call from the nurse to see how the lab results came back. If they're still really high, then we'll probably be heading back over there but we're just hoping that it was the heel poke that threw off the results. If all is good then we get to spend the weekend here at the room with her relaxing and enjoying every moment. Tommorrow we have to start washing her with the Chlorohexidine wash once a day and putting antibiotic ointment in her nose 2x's per day (to kill any bacteria) until surgery day.
Thats all for now, I'll update more when the lab results are in. I'm amazed over and over again how well Teagan recovers from all the things she has to endure. Even after our crazy and hectic day, and after all the labs and poking- she's still smiling! God made her out of some pretty tough stuff, and she truly is my hero!
We made it over to Seattle yesterday and got checked in to the Ronald McDonald house. This trip we managed to get a big room in the newer house up the road from the hospital and it is awesome! I didn't even know what the RMD house was before we had Teagan, and now its such a life saver when you're away from home for so long! So next time you drive thru Mc D's- drop a few coins in the RMD charities box... they do wonderful things!
Now for our day... The plan was to check in at 9am to be admitted and have all of our pre-op testing done. I didn't understand why they wanted to admit her 5 days early for us to just sit in the hospital room around all the germs, etc... and be miserable! So after a few hours and a few discussions with the dr. and various nurses they decided that we will come back on monday to meet with the surgeon and then discuss admission. (yay!) Before they had decided to let us go, we had been sent to our hospital room on the floor to wait... I just left Teagan in the stroller and then held her. I didn't even want to touch that bed because I was determined to keep her out of there this weekend!
We went to the cardiac clinic for a chest x-ray, ekg, and vitals. Teagan is officially 12lbs 8oz and her sats were reading in the upper 70s! Then we headed over to the pass clinic to meet with anesthesia and wait some more. There's talk that we might not have to show up for admission until the day of surgery and if thats the case, they'll give Teag gas to put her to sleep before they poke her at all! (my first choice of course!) If they admit her monday, they will probably start an iv that night in the hospital room... :(
Our last stop of the day was up to the lab for bloodwork. This is the appointment that I most dread! I wasn't too anxious though because Teagan usually does really well with the heel poke thing. So we got called back, the guy did his thing and 4 vials later we were out of there without one cry!
We got back to the room to finally let Teagan nap and eat around 4 when my phone rang. The nurse said that Teag's potassium levels were extremely high on the lab results and we needed to come back and re-do the labs. She said that sometimes when they draw from the heel the potassium readings are off/high because the squeezing of the heel causes the platelets to break and release potassium giving a false high reading. So to avoid this they needed to draw from Teagans arm just like they do for adults... :( The nurse practitioner was nice enough to meet us downstairs and put some lidocaine gel on both of her arms to numb her up before hand since they don't do that in the lab. So we got the gel on her and waited around 15min. for it to work then went back for the draw. The lab tech banded her arm and tried twice to get it and couldn't... Teagan was really really upset so I told him that we wanted someone else and to stop. Trent and I went over to the Giraffe wing to get some sweeties for her and calm her down and then went back to the lab to try again. The new tech looked at her arm and tried to see a vein and couldn't find one, so he told us he'd have to go in through her hand (not numbed). He got it after a few minutes and our little trooper made it ok. She was really upset for awhile but managed to crack a smile as we made it back to our room. She got a badge for being so brave and its so fitting,"hero!"
Teagan is fed and asleep now and I'm waiting on a phone call from the nurse to see how the lab results came back. If they're still really high, then we'll probably be heading back over there but we're just hoping that it was the heel poke that threw off the results. If all is good then we get to spend the weekend here at the room with her relaxing and enjoying every moment. Tommorrow we have to start washing her with the Chlorohexidine wash once a day and putting antibiotic ointment in her nose 2x's per day (to kill any bacteria) until surgery day.
Thats all for now, I'll update more when the lab results are in. I'm amazed over and over again how well Teagan recovers from all the things she has to endure. Even after our crazy and hectic day, and after all the labs and poking- she's still smiling! God made her out of some pretty tough stuff, and she truly is my hero!
Here's Teagan with her lidocaine gel patches on her arms, and then after the final lab with her 'hero' badge.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Packin our bags!
Sorry for the lack of posts this week, we've been busy! We're headed out tommorrow on our way to Seattle for Teagan's surgery. I've been trying to pack and get things ready for the trip and also just trying to enjoy the kids here at home.
Its so hard leaving tommorrow not knowing how long we'll be gone and apart from Gavin. So this week I've really been trying to spend even more time with him and enjoy the 'little things' he does. He is such a loving little guy and brings a smile to Trent and I both daily with the things he tells us. His newest thing he says is,"I love you higher than the moon!" (or a rocket ship, and sometimes a ladder) But tonight he said,"I love you as high as heaven!" I about cried! He likes to 'draw emails' in my favorite journals and 'throws' us kisses to "put in our pockets for later!" I'm going to miss him like crazy but he'll be in good hands while we're gone! He actually gets to spend time at Nana & Pacaws house and with 'Grandma from the airplane', so he's pretty excited!
I found out today that they have a room for us at the Ronald McDonald house and I'm so grateful! I didn't think we'd be able to stay there because there were 15 other families also on the wait list. Its so nice to have a room to 'set up camp' in the whole time we're gone- and its so close to the hospital!
Teagan has her pre-op appointments all day on friday, and we should know more about what the plan for the weekend is after that. I'm really hoping that I can talk them out of admitting her on friday and let us keep her nearby at the RMD house until monday. I'm not too excited about having her cooped up in the hospital all weekend if we don't need to be there! She is definitely showing more signs that she's ready for the surgery (not eating by bottle, pale, sweaty...) but she refuses to lay around and act sick! She likes to play in her bouncer, kick her legs like crazy, and lets you know when she's not getting enough attention! Anytime you look at her she grins ear to ear (especially for daddy!) and she's been laughing out loud too! I took a few pics monday before we put her ng back in and she loved having a tube free face for a while! I know that her fiesty little attitude will only serve to help her get through this hospital stay like a champ!
We'll be able to update more this weekend and then on surgery day! Thank you so much for all of your love and support! Thank you to Nana & Pacaw and to my Mom in advance for taking time off work and helping us so much! We couldn't do this without you guys!
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