Little Bella has captured the hearts of our family and everyone that meets her. We want to share her story with all.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Day at TCH

A stomach bug has hit the Turpin house.  I was running around yesterday trying to make sure that everyone was going to be OK while I spent the whole day at TCH with Bella.  Meanwhile, people were dropping like flies (including the nurse :( ) from the stomach bug around me.  By the time Jason got home, I was feeling a little yucky myself and about to panic.  My sweet husband volunteered to go downtown with Bella. Oh, yeah.  What a good man!

So this morning Jason, Bella, the nurse (a replacement because our normal Wednesday nurse is home sick), the EMT, and the paramedic headed off to TCH.  The guilt.  Oh.  My baby.  Ouch.  I should be there with her.  Guilt.  Oh.  I did send Jason with very thorough directions and medical notes - everything the nurses and doctors could need, lists of medications, dosages, vent settings, everything.  I had Jason call me in every appointment and we did those by speaker phone.

Pulmonology says she looks good.  Before her pneumonia, she could get off the vent up to 6 hours a day.  Now we are at 30 minutes to an hour.  Oh well.  So, no new orders.  We are going to allow her the time to get back to where she was as she is ready.  Her weight is now 6.8 kg – so still not back to where we were before the pneumonia.  He said we might want to look at increasing her feedings.  We’ll see.

Cardiology says her x-ray looks great!  Yeah!!  Her Echo doesn’t show much change from last time.  She is increasing her enalapril from once to twice a day.  She is watching her valves and her pressures.  The enalapril is helping – yeah.  The hope is that she stays OK.  If the leak or pressures get worse, it might mean another repair, but hopefully not for a few years.  There are more options she said as they get older and have more to work with.  The sad thing is I had taken her heart off my radar.  It was repaired.  We were done with that organ.  Not so.  Oh well. 

The contrast study showed that the G and the J are in the right place.  It also showed her refluxing the contrast they put in and she vomited.  Poor thing. 

They are home – what a day!

2 comments:

Lacey said...

Yikes, sounds like you need to super clean your house and lock all the doors. Somethings going around. I thought Jax heart would be done after his repair too. I don't know why the docs tell us that. Their valves always leak and a lot of times they need a second surgery. Oh well.

Unknown said...

My goodness dear! What maddness!!! So glad you are home safe, Bella is home safe and hopefully everyone is on the mend. Are you getting help, meals, etc.??? Wish I could help from afar...if you know of anything I can do, please let me know! Love you guys!