Day 21: Post rounds

Surgical team came by.  They checked her stomach and said it is fine.  They also took the bandages off so that we could see the stitches around the area where her wound vac was.  I don't think we have a bikini model in our future.  It is not that bad, but there will be a nice scar for sure.  We have to start thinking up good stories for her that she can tell people to make the scar more interesting.  Right now I am thinking something along the lines of wrestling with a lion- it will allow her to show off her roar.

We are still concerned that she is refluxing so much bile.  Surgical team said this is not uncommon and they are not worried.  I have a harder time not being worried because that is how this surgery debacle started.  She probably has an illius from the surgery that prevents things from moving along and therefore comes back up.  It is pretty common after these surgeries.  Her fevers seem to be trending down, so that is a good sign.  Her tachycardia is also trending down with her heart rate in the 140s and 150s, versus the 170s and 180s it was at Thursday night.  The sedation and pain meds should be helping that along, I think. 

One other development that has me slightly worried is that her left leg is suddenly cooler under the knee than her right leg.  We have a heating pack on the right lower abdomin/upper thigh to see if this helps- I know, counterintuitive, but that's what they do.  I really, really hope this helps, but I am not holding my breath.  If it does not help and/or if the coolness spreads to/above the knee, we have to ultrasound that leg to look for a clot.  If they find something in the ultrasound, she will have to get shots in that let- FOR THREE MONTHS!  Seriously?  I mean, seriously.  Can we please just get better?  Can we stop with the new things to worry about every day?  I may need to buy her a drama queen tshirt or something obnoxious and inappropriate like that because I am literally getting dizzy trying to grasp all these new developments.

Emerson is currently on Tylenol for her fevers, Heparin to keep her lines open, Keppra for her seizures, Versed for sedation, Morphine for pain, Phenobarbital for her seizures, Zosyn (an antibiotic) for her central line infection, Vancomycin (an antibiotic) to prevent infection from the surgery and Vecuronium as a paralytic. There are also ointments she gets throughout the day on eyes and stuff.  The Zosyn, Vancomycin and Vecuronium should disappear in the next 24 hours or so.  After this acute period following her surgery, maybe in a day or so, we will then start weaning her from the Versed- again- and the morphine.  Eventually, we will get her off of the Phenobarb- this will take a while, I think- and control potential seizures with Keppra only.  I asked today when we should prepare for weaning again and I was told this week.  We will have to see her in some discomfort; we will have to see her go through withdrawal again.  I am trying to prepare myself for it as best I can because it is absolutely necessary to do this so that she can wake up so that we can get her extubated.  She will have no memory of this... but we will.  I kinda want to steal some of herVersed so that I don't remember this either.   Because I can't do that without being locked up or put in the mental ward here, I just have to remember that it is a necessary evil if we want to see our sweet girl again.  We haven't heard her voice in three weeks.  I just have to remember that if I want to hear it again, we have to allow her to go through this.

Still a very long road ahead.  For right now, it is nice to see her resting comfortably.