Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Road to Recovery CICU Day 1

My (non) birthday, Friday January 27th 2012: let me first explain besides turning 30 and not wanting to, we decided to not celebrate my birthday because Piper would be in the hospital. We felt that until she came home with us we couldn't celebrate. Now that has been said it was probably the best non birthday ever.

To start off, Piper was feeding a lot better, she also had a bowl movement however with some coaxing. She was impressing the nursing staff and her Doctors with her progress. Her chest, arterial and catheter tubes were all removed shortly after lunch. They were continuing to give her Nitric Oxide, NO for you chemistry buffs out there. Also not to be confused with Nitrous Oxide N2O (laughing gas). This gas is used to help dilate the blood vessels in her lungs and reduce pulmonary hypertension, which was caused by her VSD. She seemed happy to see familiar faces as she was being weened from the morphine.

After spending another afternoon of watching and feeding her by bottle, I was finally able to have my cuddle! This is what really made my non birthday so special, even though I hate my cheesy smile in this picture it does capture how very happy I am that I got my cuddle.



Mark also got to play Dr. by listening to Piper's heart. He was able to listening to it before surgery so he could hear the difference.

My parents stopped by again and my mother was very happy that she got her cuddle in as well.
 

They took us out for dinner, which at first I was hesitant about, especially as we would be spending the night at the Ronald McDonald house. We found a restaurant close by which started out really nice, but the service declined as the meal continued. Let's just say that we left wishing we hadn't gone out for dinner.

We went back to find out that they once again had decreased her nitric oxide. We had a few cuddles and then said good night. We knew we were leaving her in good hands and that she also had her bears looking over her.
We headed over to the Ronald McDonald house where we had a room waiting for us.

1 comment:

  1. So glad she came out of everything so beautifully!! She's gorgeous. Just you wait for that burst of baby energy now that she has a fixed ticker! :-) That RMDH is a wonderful place. Such caring people there, such a great setup to help families out during such a tough time.

    ReplyDelete