Moving out of the ICU :)

I talked with my Dad this morning a little after 9 a.m. and he said that Mary Alice is doing well enough to move out of ICU today! Yeah! He thinks they will be able to move her hopefully by early afternoon. Kids are not allowed in ICU but I can bring the girls to see her today once she is in her new room! Anne is working on a watercolor picture/get well card as I write this - hopefully this will be something fun for my mom to look at in her room. I will try to read the blog comments to my mom if my dad has his laptop up and running in the room. If not, I know she will enjoy reading them (or having someone read them to her) sometime later!

Have a great day everyone :)

p.s. I thought I would post fun picture today... this is a picture from my grandma's 90th birthday last year.

Read the blog to Mary Alice

By the way - I forgot to mention, that after my mom got back into her hospital bed after sitting this morning for an hour and a half in a chair, I asked her if she would like to hear the blog updates and comments from yesterday. She was very interested in hearing all of this, especially the comments - so thank you everyone for your kind words, it felt like we were reading a bunch of get well cards that had arrived just for her! THANK YOU :)

Post Surgery Day 2

I left home at 7:30 a.m. this morning to make sure I would arrive by the 8:30 end of shift change so I could be with my mom while my dad left to go sleep at my sister nicole's house. My dad ended up spending the night in the chair by my mom's bed last night (it does not recline, it is just a chair, so he has to be exhausted right now!) When I first got there my mom was trying to open her eyes and talk with me a little, but she seemed to be feeling a little sick. I asked how she was feeling and the nurse filled me in... my poor mom had gotten sick to her stomach and was feeling nauseous from the pain medicine. She was starting to come around though, but still had a few bouts of feeling sick to her stomach while I was there.
My mom was doing well enough that the nurse said she was ready for more tubes to come out, yeah! She took out her left atrial pressure line from her left wrist, next was her oxygen nasal canula and finally the bigger of the two lines going into her neck. My mom did well through all of this and soon after was ready to attempt sitting in a chair. It was a bit of a process to get all of her lines and tubes in a position that she could get up and move over to the chair, but she did it, with the help of her nurse and not too long after she had been sitting, my sister Melissa arrived. My mom started to perk up a little as she sat - she wasted no time letting us know that she would like to have her neck and shoulders rubbed :) She ended up sitting for about an hour and a half before she told us she was ready to lay back down.
I stayed until about 12:30 p.m. but had to leave to get home for Whitney's 9 month check up with the pediatrician this afternoon. That appointment went very well, Whitney is doing very well with her growth and weight gain. We discussed concerns about her hearing (luckily, we have an appointment coming up this Monday, the 8th, with the ENT), her breathing (we go to the cardiologist again in July, but her breathing still just isn't quite right and her chest is still retracting as she breathes, but we aren't sure what more at this point to do about this. hopefully it has something to do with the tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia that should resolve itself as she gets bigger and stronger).
I called my brother on my way home from the pediatrician's office to see how things were going (around 4:30 p.m.) and he said that he and my dad were outside of the room because they were removing her chest drainage tube, yeah!!! This is a big deal... I think she had as many things removed within 24 hours post-op. as Whitney had removed in 4 days in the ICU! We are so thankful that my mom was in good health going into this surgery, with the exception of the very bad condition of her aortic valve and surrounding aortic tissue. I am hopeful that they will be able to move her from ICU to a regular room sometime tomorrow. I will have to call my Dad tonight to see if there are any updates since late this afternoon - but this is pretty much the summary for the day. Overall - a good Day 2 :)

Thank you for your continued prayers!!!

Freedom

My mom was extubated sometime this evening after shift change. My sister called a little after 9:30 to give me the good news! I later talked to my Dad - he said she was feeling pretty weak but was able to talk a little bit. She is not in too much pain, they are doing a good job with the pain medicine. I feel much better going to bed tonight knowing that she is free of the breathing tube & the tube that drains her stomach - I can't even imagine how awful it would be to be aware of the tube and unable to do something about it... SO HAPPY she is doing well enough to breathe on her own, yeah! :)

Thank you again to everyone for all of your prayers and support!!!!!!!!

Mary Alice is awake

The nurses just escorted us out of Mary Alice's (my mom's) room for the shift change. We are not allowed to be in the ICU room with her from 7-8:30 a.m. or p.m. Since this afternoon she has started to wake up and can nod her head yes and no, but cannot talk due to the breathing tube. She is VERY ready to have the tube taken out (extubated). She is awake and able to communicate by nodding yes and no + now that she has her eyes opened, she is also communicating through her eyes. She is still in a lot of pain, but doing very well all things considered. We are hopeful that she will be extubated tonight.

By the way - to all of the Conley and O'Grady families praying for my mom and following how she is doing, she wants you all to know that the surgeon confirmed this is definitely a congenital condition, so PLEASE have a cardiologist (with a trained ear) listen to your heart/get yourself checked out!!! Aside from her aortic valve the surgeon said that her heart is very healthy.

Post-Surgery ICU Upate

She came through the surgery well! She is currently in the Intensive Care unit. I just visited with her briefly and she looks good. She is currently sedated. It will be about 3-4 hours before she comes out of sedation. We briefly met with the surgeon. When I get a chance to sit down with my dad, we'll put our heads together and let you know what the surgeon said. The surgeon did say that it will be 6 months to one year before she feels the full benefit of the surgery. Basically, her heart was working very hard in its impaired condition. Now her heart won't have to work so hard. I will be back down to the hospital this evening, and will be giving more updates as they come in. Thank you so much for all your prayers. They worked.

12:40 pm update

We just heard from the volunteer that they are closing up my mom. We presume this means it went well since the surgery took less time than they originally expected (this is what we hope, anyway!) Will post more when we hear she is out of surgery and in recovery (I might have a lag in posting since I need to head home soon for Whitney's physical therapy from 2:30-3:30 p.m. but I will try to post as soon as I can, when I can)

sort of an update

We are having a different experience as the patient's family in the waiting room for my mom's surgery than we had for Whitney's surgery. Unfortunately, the updates are coming from a volunteer rather than a nurse. This is in no way the volunteer's fault, it is very nice that she is volunteering, but she does not have any details or information when she comes to give an update. We just received an "update" that they are "warming" my mom, because they have to lower the body temperature during the surgery. If they watch and everything looks ok, they will be closing her up. This is all we know, we do not know what all they had to do, how everything went, etc... I guess we just have to be patient and wait until we meet with the surgeon after the surgery to see how everything went and what the extent of the repairs/etc... were. This is all I know at this point - I will write more later when we find out anything else.