Post Surgery & Such

Hello!

I am SO SORRY I didn't update through the surgery. I completely intended to and even had a post written but it got kind of crazy and I just forgot to post anything.

So here's the blow-by-blow:

7:30 -- Maisie FINALLY gets wheeled back. She is TERRIFIED. I don't think she's really been aware of having surgery before, so this was a "new" experience for her.

8:50ish -- A nurse came to the waiting room and asked that I scrub in and come into operating room. Um, WHAT?

9:00 -- I go back to find out that Maisie has fought the anesthesiologist so hard she wants me to help calm Maisie down.

9:30 -- Maisie is unconscious. I leave the operating room. Yes, it took half an hour.

10:00 -- Another nurse comes back and tells me the surgeon opened for the thymectomy. I probably won't hear anything until after noon.

12:30 -- The thymectomy is over and the surgeons are switching. A different surgeon performs each part of the operation (thymus, Broviac, port.)

1:00 -- This is where it got weird. Maisie had a dialysis catheter as an infant in the same place her Broviac was to be placed. The surgeon began the procedure and when he went to insert the actual catheter, found that he could not slide it as far through the vein as was necessary. After a fluoroscopy they found that the catheter was coiling inside her superior vena cava.

EXCUSE ME?

They assumed she had a blood clot in her SVC that was preventing the catheter from going through.

UM.

It was possible that the clot had formed during the thymectomy -- this seemed weird to me but I'm not the doctor. They immediately went into panic mode and sent for an emergency ultrasound and for a nurse to come tell me what was going on.

A little after 1 -- I get informed that Maisie probably has a blood clot in her heart.

1:30ish -- I get informed that she does NOT have a blood clot in her heart. Turns out the catheter tubing was faulty. Honestly I think the ER was bored was hoping for a cardiac arrest patient.

HOWEVER her pleura is torn and she has chylothorax. Which means she needs a second chest tube (I already knew she would probably have one to drain her thymus cavity.)

2:00 -- Broviac is in, all is well but for an elevated heart rate, time for the port.

2:30 -- Port is done, she's in recovery.

3:00 -- I can go see her.

4:00 -- She is vomiting. And vomiting. And vomiting. Pretty soon she's on IV fluids and anti-nausea meds. Her feed is stopped and her stomach is pumped through the g-tube so there isn't anything for her to throw up. But she is STILL TRYING TO VOMIT.

At this point I was exasperated. I nearly had a heart attack, she got TWO nasty chest tubes, and then she had a horrible reaction to the anesthesia, which is so not like her.


Anyway, all is well at this point. Both chest tubes were pulled this morning, they finally found an anti-nausea med that handled the vomiting, and she was mostly back to normal today.

The port and Broviac look great. No infections or anything. The process itself was crazy, but the end result looks good. She'll be having an ultrasound tomorrow to check everything out, make sure her lines are all placed correctly and the cavity where her thymus was is looking good.

In other news, Squishy is doing well. She is 26 weeks old, and apparently she is the size of a head of cauliflower. Um, okay. According to the doctor Squishy is pushing three pounds already. Which means I'm growing me a big baby! And no, we don't know for sure her gender. But I'm certain she's a girl.

This is considered a high-risk pregnancy because of my extensive medical history, but honestly everything looks great and I have no worries about my little Squishy.

I think that's all for today. We are still planning on going home on the 1st -- possibly sooner! Jeff has been fielding deliveries of oxygen tanks and ventilators and all kinds of stuff. This week I will probably be spending a lot of time at home getting everything ready. My sister Miranda is going to be here for the week and Maisie will love the attention. She won't miss me at all. Miranda dotes on her worse than my mother. Not that I'm complaining :)