Ok...I've been a giant slacker on getting to this but the 4 hours of sleep i've gotten in the past 36 hours allows me a little bit of wiggle room. Here we go....
July 2nd.....we have to be at the hospital to check in at 4:45am...that 15 minutes before 5 must make a huge difference to someone. So I got up around 3:30 ish to take a shower, hair, make-up..all the typical me stuff because even though it's surgery day AND it's O' dark thirty i'm still going to be at the hospital allllll day so I figured that not looking like I hadn't slept was a good thing. We got there...and we waited...and waited...and waited...got put in a little room with curtains...and waited.....and waited...are you seeing a pattern here? About 7 am everything started going...consent forms for the anesthesiologist...a little "relaxing" medicine for Alex (Charlie and I could have used some too) and a hazmat suit for me to go into the operating room with Alex. BUT they had given Alex the "relaxing" medicine so as we are walking to the O.R. he's getting drunker and drunker...so ..by the time they put the medical shower cap on me, then one on him he was cracking up....funniest damn thing he had ever seen...then they waved some gas in his face and he was OUT! Then I ditched the white bunny suit and hooked up with Charlie and grand-pa (blood donor)to wait..there was alot of waiting..refer to the above sentences to see hoe much. There is so much waiting that they give you a vibrating pager just like at Outback Steakhouse...crazy. Back to the waiting...breakfast...waitng...coke...waiting...pee...waiting....coke...more pee....phone call from the operating room....now on Bypass (the worst part)...waiting...coke....phone call #2 from the operating room...Off Bypass (woo hoo!!!)...surgeon now working IN the heart.....eeewwww....wiating.....facebook....waiting....snack.....phone call #3...surgeon on his way to talk to us. Now Charlie and I practically assaulted him coming off the elevator but after so much waiting I wasn't going to wait 1 more second. He said everything went perfectly...just the way he described (now he also described all the shit that could go wrong so I did pause for a minute, but he was smiling so I figured we were good) We were going to head on up to the PICU but Charlie was a little scared, so I went first. Not unusual in our family...I have a MUCH stronger tummy for this stuff, but when I went up to the PICU, well, I got kicked out. Alex wasn't there yet and when he did come up the secret elevator, Dr. Rick threw me out. I guess he remembered me from the last time we were there.
So after pacing out in front of the PICU, Dr. Nitta (love her) came out to get me and in I went and this is what I saw:
1. Alex alive (WOO HOO!!!!!)
2. Alex breathing on ventilator
3. Tubes-lots of them (3 chest tubes)
4. Wires-pacing wires for his pace maker which he no longer needed (WOO FRICKITY HOO!!!)
5. IV's and Central Lines-3 of them
Since this isn't my first time it was no big surprise to see all of that, but the biggest surprise was that they were gonna wake him up and pull that breathing tube. HOLD THE FUCK ON......are you sure....swollen heart...remember the last time....going to vomit...you people better be right cuz if you aren't, there is no where on this earth you can hide....OK wake him up....do it. Did it, done, but now he has this thing taped to his face that is blowing oxygen UP his nose, yelling, crying, (him not me) attempting to rip it off his face. Of course every time he moves he gets pissed because of the chest tubes sticking out of his body from the inside. Charlie arrived at some point but left again due to the "silent cry". Watching your child cry is horrible, but watching your child cry with a tube up his nose and another one down his throat with no sound coming out is INSANE!
So, Alex did great, pissed off, sore, and cranky. Breathing on his own and not sleeping due to chest tubes. Needless to say I was on night time duty. No sleep, minimal pain medication, that's what happens when you have a history of failing extubation, Blue's Clues DVD's over and over AND Bobby. Bobby would be the Cardiology Fellow on duty at night...I remember him from the last time when he was a resident...we are not friends...he's an ass...I'm a bitch...a never the two shall meet. I had his ass paged every hour. If I'm not sleeping and Alex is not sleeping then welcome to the party. My nurse thought it was hysterical. Finally he passed out around 4am or so which means I did also and I got to sleep for about an hour. Why the cafetieria isn't open 24 hours in a hospital I will never understand...I needed caffeine....I needed a Coke...hate coffee...damn lazy hospital cafeteria workers...get to work earlier and open the place up.
Charlie came over for his shift, I took another hour nap and a shower then had to hurry back so Alex could get his Chest tubes out! Luckily for him they also took out the pacing wires and them temperature probe that they had shoved up his behind, not a fan of that. He was alot better after that. The chest tubes were really ticking him off. He felt better, the O2 was turned down so it wasn't like breathing in a wind tunnel and they finally got him a little squishy chair to keep him elevated, he was not cooperating with the whole propped up in bed thing. But still, that night, no damn sleep!!!!
By day 3 Alex had on his leads for the monitor, heart rate, etc, a blood pressure cuff ans his O2 monitor that is a light bulb on a band aid on his finger. he was doing so well that we got to go on a wagon ride around the hospital...OUT OF THE PICU...they never let the PICU kids out...but Dr. Rick said as long as we stayed on the Mattel floors we were cool to go, and go we did! We kept him up all day because I thought he was getting a little backwards....sleep all day...up all night...so not going to work at home. That night...sleep, or as much as you can get in the hospital. I heard my nurse whisper/shouting at the Xray guy.....NO...NO....I don't care....you are not waking that baby up!!! Definitely my kind of girl!
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