Done...but still here

Well, we are still here @ the hospital but Reese is officially done with what needed to be done with her. Dr Mendelhoff came by this afternoon & took out her chest tube, then Kim took her to get one last sets of x-rays to make sure that the heart looks good & everything has been taken care of.

Reese was most excited about getting her chest tube out & now only has ports in one hand & both feet. Our nurse will be taking out the lines in the feet today & they will leave the one in the hand alone just in case Reese needs something else.

We are scheduled to get out of here tomorrow even though the doc said that Reese would probably be fine if we left today. Since we just were able to take the chest tube out today, he'd rather just place it safe & have stay in an extra day.

I am offially signing off, this will be my last post. Let me just tell everyone how much I've enjoyed working with them over the years...whatever, Kim will take over from here. Pics are coming next.

Jason

Out of the ICU!!!

Good news, Reese was allowed to go to her "normal" recovery room this morning. Her belly was really bloated as a result of the anesthesia but that is very normal for anyone who has to go under during surgery. The personel were waiting for her to finally dirty her diaper & she complied around 1am this morning.

Kim stayed with Reese in the ICU last night but both were able to get a decent night's rest. Since she has beeen in her regular room, her personality is returning to normal. We've been playing with stuffed animals, playing hide & seek, & she is loving her new balloons that were sent to her room. We have gotten her to smile finally but she still does not dig seeing the nurses & dr's come towards her.

Kim & I have been able to hold her regularly but we get pretty tangled up in all of the lines, tubes. etc. Our cardiologist came by this morning to check her diaper count & see how her belly's doing, he is very happy with the results. He said that the surgeon should be by sometime today to take out her drain tube. Doc said that once that is out, she will feel 100% better than she does right now.

Listen to me going on & on, I'm starting to sound like Kim.

Thanks for your prayers, gifts, meals, etc, we have been truly blessed to share this "experience" with each of you.

An update

Sweet Reesie is doing well. She definitely isn't her self, but she's on her way. We are still in the picu, but only because her poor tummy is so distended and uncomfortable. Please pray she'll be able to have a normal bowel movement soon to relieve her rock-hard tummy from its discomfort.

The girls got to come up and see her today which was really good. I've gotten to hold her most of the day...that was heaven. Jason just left not long ago. Oh, it is so hard to see your baby hurting. Plus, any time a nurse comes near her she starts crying and yelling. (I do have to say that Medical City Children's Hopsital has been wonderful. They are truly a caring staff, great at what they do). Please keep up the prayers for Reese. It means more than you know.

Reese is doing so well

We ended up both going home to sleep last night.  Yesterday, after coming outof anesthesia, Reese would get so upset if Jase and I were there but couldn't hold her.  It was heart-breaking.  We are back this morning and she looks phenomenal.  She isn't sedated any more, although still on pain meds.  She hasn't had to be on any medicine for her heart.  They say she couldn't be doing any better.  As I type, the nurse is taking even more lines out of her.  She has had a pedialyte and when I go back in after this I can give her a sippy cup of breast milk.  They are planning on moving her to a regular room, out of the picu, later today if everything continues to go so well.  God has been so loving and gracious through all of this.  Please, please continue to lift our Reese up to the Lord. Today will probably be a tough day for her.  I can't wait to be able to hold her.  Thank you so much for praying.  We have felt the prayers.

2 girls in the hospital now

one day Kim will look back on today & laugh...probably won't be tomorrow though. Kim didn't fare so well when we were looking @ Reese in the icu. Reese appearred to be trying to take out some of her tubes/lines & Kim thought that she was in pain & down she went...Kim sat in the chair & basically fainted.

Kim is doing ok...she is recovering downstairs in the ER with a couple of bags of fluid in her until she gets her legs back under her. ER doc just wanted to run some tests just to make sure but he thinks it was simply too overwhelming for her, lack of sleep, anxiety, etc that led to the episode.

Reese is attempting to wake up...she has just a normal O2 tube in her nose & is still sedated as she is trying to wake up. Nurse says all of her numbers/readings are all perfect.

keep you posted on 2 of my 4 girls...keep your fingers crossed that my 2 @ school had a normal day (both grand-dads had to get them ready for school this morning).

jase

DONE!!!...almost...

Ok...Reese has everything covered up, closed up, stitched up & working on its own. Doc came up & said everything looked real good, everything went according to plan & there were no hiccups along the way. We have yet to see Reese but she is currently in the PICU & we are just waiting for maybe another hour @ the longest.

Obviously this is not written by Kim, this is dad...sorry it's short & to the point but hey, I'm a dad & my little one is safe again.

I'll let Kim update more when we get to see Reese

Off of the bypass machine

The nurse came out and said that the patch is sewed in the heart and everything looks really good. She is off of the heart/ lung bypass machine and her heart is beating on its own. PRAISE THE LORD! They will be doing an echocardiogram on her and if everything looks good they will close her up. I'll be back soon.

Love,
Kim