Atlanta Day 3

 

Our day truly began at midnight when we had to shut off Lucy’s feeding pump and switch her over to an IV of D-10 solution, her sugar of choice.  This is when we noticed that our little Houdini managed to pull out another IV , in her sleep mind you!  This is not the first IV that she has managed to pull, she kind of has a reputation for doing this.  Another one was placed after a few pokes. Then because  it was now after midnight and she was NPO, I attempted to perform a miracle, put Lucy back to sleep with out nursing.   This was no easy feat, in fact this was one of the things I dreaded most.   By some miracle, she realized after a few minutes that she just needed to lay her head down and fall asleep. 

All was quiet until 1:30am when the anesthesiologist came in to discuss Lucy’s medical history and how they were going to handle her surgery in the morning.  I managed to speak to him quietly so as not to wake the sleeping baby, but mind you it was not easy whispering Lucy’s entire medical history to a doctor at 1:30am while laying next to my sleeping baby in her crib.  After about an hour I went back to sleep only to wake at 5:00am to the nursing staff checking Lucy’s diaper, taking her blood pressure, and taking her temperature.  She didn’t sleep through this, and again I was faced with the task of putting Lucy back to sleep without nursing.

At 7:15am we were told that surgery was coming to take her for her procedure.  We met with the surgeon briefly before her procedure and then off she went.  We gave the nurse Lucy’s pink blanket to put over her shoulder when she took her back,  this really seemed to help Lucy handle the transition from mommy to operating room. 

After a few hours all was said and done and Lucy was in recovery.  We were told that she was fussy but handled the surgery well.   We think that she may have given the nursing staff the impression that she was in a lot of pain because she was so fussy, but we think she was fussing more from separation anxiety from mommy than from her surgery pain.  None the less, they gave her a little something extra for the pain and brought her back to us safe and sound.  She looked flush and swollen which we were told was from the anesthesia and the extra fluids.  She was sleepy and hyper at the same time, not really sure if she should lay down or stand up and play.  It was funny to watch as she was being sleepy and silly, but after about thirty minutes she succumbed to sleep and finally laid down to take a nap.  When she awoke she was able to nurse and we were discharged exactly twenty-four hours after being admitted. 

Tonight it appears that she is experiencing some pain, but we are doing our best to stay on top of it with a little Tylenol with codeine.   We are concerned, however,  that Lucy has not had a substantial wet diaper in over twelve hours and she still looks quite swollen to us.  I spoke with our pediatrician about this and she too is concerned.  Lucy should be soaking through diapers considering the amount of fluids that have been put into her.  I pressed on her bladder per our pediatrician’s request to feel if it was distended, but she felt soft and squishy.   I brainstormed with her what we thought could be the cause of this.  She thinks that there could be something going on with her kidneys since her bladder is not full and distended.   Just when I got off the phone and were getting ready to make our way back to the hospital, we noticed that she had peed.  Thinking that things were starting to turn around, we decided to wait to take her in and instead monitor her closely.  Unfortunately, I think that she peed because I pressed so hard on her bladder because we have had no urine output since.  We are going to keep a close eye on this and if we still have no pee in the morning then we are going to have to take her in.  So if you could, do a little pee pee dance tonight in hopes that we have a ten gallon diaper to change in the morning!