June 14, 2009

June 14, 2009 - Sunday
I've been a bit remiss in keeping up with this - big reason is that not much is happening, so that is pretty good news. The afib seems to have gone by the wayside. Not one example of it since she left the hospital for the second (third?) time. The only issue has been that she has been holding on to some fluid weight, which gets her bloated and tired. Her surgeon told her that this is fairly common for people that have had open heart surgery. The heart just doesn't like to be handled, and it sometimes isn't able to keep up the way that it should. She has to take Lasik, which pulls water out of her...one night, she took it before bed...the next morning, she weighed herself, and she had lost 7 lbs. of fluids. (Guess what SHE was up doing all night???) Other than that, things are going fairly well. She still cannot sleep on her left side, without it being uncomfortable. That is unfortunate because that is the side the she sleeps best on. However, the sternum has knitted itself well, and all of the incisions are helaing nicely. In fact, the incision on her neck, where the carotid artery was repaired is almost invisible.

We did have some action on another front, however. Carlee has had some problems sleeping...after a sleep test, and after some investigations, it turned out that her tonsils were enlarged enough that they were blocking her airway. And so, the classic tonsillectomy was scheduled. That was Friday morning. Things went very well. She was in and out in 20 minutes. However, due to the fact that the tonsils had been interfering with her breathing, the surgeon decided to have her stay the night in PICU - pediatric intensive care unit. She was the healthiest kid in that place by far. All kinds of very sick kids in that place. It was very depressing. However, the nurses really made over her, and she had a pretty good time. I guess most of the staff there doesn't get much of an opportunity to interact with relatively healthy kids, so she was a special treat for them. It was obvious that she was going to do just fine shortly after she came out of recovery. About an hour later, Lynn ordered some lunch for her. It consisted of eggs and chicken with stars soup. She almost inhaled the eggs, and I had to feed her the soup, because she couldn't handle the spoon fast enough to satisfy herself. Obviously, the throat was not even remotely sore. Her voice sounds much better as well - lots cuter, if that is possible!

Carlee and Lynn will both be home all next week-if anyone gets bored, give her a call. Both parties are feeling much better, enough to start getting cabin fever. Lynn started therapy week before last, and is trying to build herself up. She has an appointment with her doctor next week, and may get to stop taking some of the mounds of pills that she has been having to deal with every day. If she goes off one of the anti-arrythmia pills, it might help out with halting the fluid build-up...definitely a good thing. It also will help her build up her stamina, as that medication keeps her blood pressure artificially depressed, even when she is exercising.