The news, as some of you already know, is that we are home 🙂 Just to continue the full accounting, here are the round-ups for the last couple of days.
Post-Op Day 12 Round-Up: The holter was removed, another chest x-ray was done (always an upsetting experience as they have to tie the baby’s arms down over her head), and medications were dropped (some to twice a day, others to once a day). The pacer wires were removed from her chest as were the stitches in her right wrist. Not pleasant. Neither was spending the night there.
Post-Op Day 13 Round-Up: The moment of truth arrived in the morning as we headed down for an echo to confirm that no fluid (blood) had built up around her heart after the removal of the pacer wires. Incredible relief to hear that she was fine! Then began a whirlwind of waiting. Baby ate, slept, we cleaned up, tried to calm down expecting a long wait. After lunch, our nurse removed the final IV from her right hand as well as the bandages covering the suture line on her chest and the baby was free! Sticky, icky, but free! 🙂 We immediately took that opportunity to give her a quick bath! The scar was not as scary as it looked with the bloody bandages. Charlize was just SO happy to be sitting in the bath tub and we all sighed a great joy at her.
It took a while but we were finally released after having been seen by the Doctor. We were given a prescription for Dioxin for 4 months to help her heart heal and for a few doses of Morphine in the event we needed it. The removal of drugs from her system was a little aggressive to match our planned release date and she handled it *very* well. But, just as a precaution, it was best to have some handy in case she needed it. It took us a little while to fill it (3 pharmacies later) but we finally got home and got her to bed by 11pm. For the first time in a little more than 2 weeks, the three of us were sleeping in our own beds -together! You can imagine the joy and relief of that! 🙂
She’s doing well at home although we’re still trying to re-teach her how to breastfeed. Since the withdrawal of drugs, she’s been having difficulty with it (having lost the necessary reflex) but we know she can regain it. (Heck, she did it well 3 mornings ago and actually did it for a bit this morning, too!). So now we’re trying to continue with our lives, pick up the pieces littered around the house. Tonight, we get Kyle and our puppy back so our home will be complete!
Looking back on all we’ve written (both here and in the notebook we had at the hospital) it’s mind-blowing to see what we went through. And not just us, but our little champion, too! She got through a very complicated surgery and not only did her heart recover from it, but without any blockage or need of a pacemaker! Every day she has done something outstanding and every day we have been blessed with so much support. This may have all lasted a total of almost 4 weeks or so in all, but it feels like we’ve lived a lifetime… (and, considering that the time is almost half of how long Charlize has been alive…)