From Surgery to 1 Week After Surgery

I'm not really sure how I wanted to start my blog the first work that comes to my head is "AMAZING". When we were waiting in the holding area for them to take Taylor off to surgery she was so relaxed and just kept look at us to make sure that we were ok. When we hugged her goodbye as they were taking her off to surgery for the 12th heart surgery, she kept checking to make sure that we were OK. Of course we weren't and we tried to be strong but when you know what your kid is about to go through yet again its so hard not to have the fears and worries that go along with major surgery. From the time she left us to the time we got to see her again would be about 6 hours. I was extremely grateful for some family and friends, Dad, Momma-Nette, Karen, Aunt Rhonda, Candi and her husband, that came to sit with us in the waiting room to help our time go by which was so nice! Thank you all!

Around 1:45 pm we got to see Taylor. She was drugged and fighting to stay awake. The nurse showed me her incisions and it wasn't what I had expected and then she had 2 chest tubes and external pacer wires in case the new pacemaker went bad which has been known to happen for Taylor. Robin and I were standing in her room as the nurses and doctors got her situated her monitor starts going off saying her heart rate was 222. We start freaking out and so does the nurse. After a minute, which seemed much longer she noticed that she was fine but that the monitor was double reading her heart rate. I've known parents that have been in situations like that but I never have and was scared to death but then so thankful it was just a technology issue.

The next day was another rough day. The nurse had Taylor get up and sit in a chair to try and drain the chest tubes. Taylor was so scared and they hurt her so much but she sat there for about 20 minutes trying to deal with the pain. She got to lay down for awhile and then got her up again later that afternoon to drain them 1 more time and then it was time to take the tubes out. Taylor had chest tubes when she was a baby so I was never in the room when they did things to her and when I heard that they are taking the chest tubes out I wasn't sure what to expect. Apparently the foot of the bed is the "splash zone" and boy was it. They literally yanked those tubes out and fluid went every where. Taylor was freaked out and hurting so much after that. I felt so bad for her but I know that by doing this she was 1 step closer to going home.

The 3rd day was a little easier but still a little rough. Since everything seemed to be working ok it was time to take out the external pacing wires. Taylor thought it was gonna be like the chest tubes coming out so she was pretty worked up. The wires came out, 2 arterial lines (1 was stitched to her neck) out, and only had 1 IV that would stay in until she went home. Taylor was much happier with being able to move around without being hooked up to so much stuff.

The 4th day was great. We had a pacemaker check, echo, and then it was time to go home and Taylor was told to only take her Coreg and not her aspirin and Lisinopril. We will see how it affects her function by not being on them but until then we will enjoy only having to take 1 pill twice a day.

Its been 1 week since surgery and Taylor is doing fantastic. Her main complaints are her incisions itching and that she can't do anything for about 8 weeks. I feel bad for her but with what she went through last week is truly amazing and she is the strongest person I know. She has had no pain medicine since Thursday but every now and again she might move wrong and she hurts herself so she takes a Tylenol. She is such a trooper and I'm so proud of her!