Believe it or not, our sweet girl came home from the hospital on post-op day 6! Yes, you read that correctly - on Day 6 after her Fontan - she came home!!! The best part - she has done well! We are so thankful!
On Wednesday, post-op day 6, the doctors were on the bubble for sure. Olivia had a pleural effusion and it hds increased since her chest tube had come out the day before. She was on a lot of diuretics (still on lots of those) and they usually don't send patients home on so many. They debated and debated and finally agreed to let us go. BUT, we had to agree to come back the VERY NEXT morning for an appointment to be sure it was no worse. They told us not to even unpack b/c we might be re-admitted immediately. We were just thankful for a night in our own bed and for our girl to have a little normal. Mommy was up and scared to death all night!!! I even took a video in the dead of night of her breathing just so the doctors could listen to it the next day. They had told us to keep an eye on it and boy I did!! Her chest xray the following day showed to be a little worse, but clinically she was still presenting okay and not symptomatic. They said she would be fine to take home, but we had to come back the next Tuesday for another chest xray. Thankfully my mom was still in town to help out. We kept Olivia in a bubble! They said she could go outside and breath fresh air, but no hanging out with lots of children. We went back the following Tuesday and she did great. Her chest xray was a little better and they decreased one dose of her diuretics - even though we are still on all 3 of them. She was and is still presenting okay and the effusion is not appearing to bother her. We just have to keep her well until it completely goes away. We have another appointment next week.
Emotionally, Olivia is doing better. They told us she would suffer from post-traumatic stress and we definitely see it. Because she can't express verbally everything she is going through, she is acting out a bit. She wants mommy almost 100% of time. Don't get me wrong - she still loves her daddy - she just wants to be touching mommy at all times :). That means even at 2, 3, 4, and 5 am! :):):).
We are now in the midst of Hurricane Sandy!!! So, at least there is no temptation to get our girl out :).
Julie
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