From Hailey's CarePage through her heart surgery/hospital stay
Keep praying....
Posted Jul 12, 2011 7:46am
Little Hailey went in to the operating room at 7:30 am. Please keep her, Jason, Michelle, Brayden, and Ian in your prayers. As updates come my way I will share.Staci
Hailey
Posted Jul 12, 2011 8:46am
No update yet. Waiting to hear that the surgeon has started the procedure. Little Miss Hailey was all smiles this morning and chatting up a storm.
Incision
Posted Jul 12, 2011 9:31am
The incision was made to begin surgery about 5 minutes ago. Keep the prayers flowing. Our little Hailey will be better than ever in no time : )
Things are progressing....
Posted Jul 12, 2011 10:19am
Hailey is now on the by-pass machine and things are going well so far.
Things are looking good!
Posted Jul 12, 2011 12:08pm
She is off the bypass machine and headed for recovery. The one hole was little bigger than expected but the Dr was able to fix it. Hailey is doing great!Mommy and Daddy are taking a lunch break while they wait to go see her. Thanks for all of the prayers!!!Aunt Staci
Our Sweet Baby Girl
Posted Jul 12, 2011 3:27pm
Hailey is in CICU now. She looks so tiny in that big bed. Fortunately, the nurse was in her room when we came in. She explained all of tubes, monitors, and IVs. It is a little overwhelming but overall, she looks good. Hailey is not awake yet and is still on the ventilator. They are hoping to take her off of the ventilator early this evening or tomorrow morning. Everyone that talks to us says she did good and looks good. Her cardiologist stopped in the waiting room a minute ago to check in on us and let us know she checked in on peanut. Thank you so very much for all your thoughts and prayers. You will never know how much your support and prayers have meant to us. She still has a bumpy road ahead of her as she recovers. I pray that God continues to watch over her and hopefully she has an uneventful, speedy recovery.
Just Waiting & Hopefully Napping
Posted Jul 12, 2011 8:56pm
No real changes with Hailey to report. Dad went to the room to nap and watch part of the All Star Game. I think he is missing his boys. I'm in Hailey's room and am going to attempt to nap in this thing they call a recliner. We'll see!Hailey is finally stirring and trying so hard to wake up. We are waiting on her blood gas results to see how she is doing with the vent being lowered. We are hoping if it is not gone tonight that we can get rid of it in the morning. The poor thing has been waiting for what seems like forever for eye drops to help her blink. I feel so awful because I know she is spoiled and wants mommy and daddy to pick her up and I would give anything to be able to comfort her but we can't hold her just yet. At one point, the doctor thought they were going to need to give her platelets but the drainage from her tube slowed down. I think they are going to remove her Foley catheter tomorrow too. Unfortunately, I wanted to sit by her bed and hold her hand and that just can't happen. Both hands are in use or strapped down at the moment. She does have one leg free so I have been holding and kissing her left foot.Our first step is to get her off of the ventilator. One step at a time to get our baby home. As we take our first nap of the day, I'm thanking God for the wonderful surgeon, fantastic hospital staff and our amazing little girl. I'm also praying that Hailey can take charge and start breathing on her own so they can remove her ventilator.
A quick update...
Posted Jul 13, 2011 9:40am
Hailey came off the vent at 5:30 this morning. Jason and Michelle got a little bit of sleep last night, but not much. They are anxiously waiting for the doctor to come around for rounds. I am sure she will update as soon as she can. I know that some of you are keeping up with things on here, soI thought I would share the good news. Her two big brothers are holding well at home with Mamaw and Papaw Arthur, and Kerri and Aaron. Thanks to Mike and Sheila and Gretchen for their help with the boys the past couple of days!Keep the prayers coming.Aunt Staci
She continues to be our little Rockstar!!
Posted Jul 13, 2011 11:27am
On Hailey's end, her night seemed to go okay. She appeared to be uncomfortable but when you have IV's and restraints tied to both arms, an IV in one foot, not to mention everything going on around her chest who could expect her to be comfortable! She's a trooper though. It did take her awhile to come out of anesthesia and she had issues with her eyes being super dry and not able to blink (that looked painful to me). Once she started waking up, boy was she on the move. She had both arms up over her head and her knees up at her chest. With looking at everything she had hooked up to her, I have no idea how she can move that much! The nurse had to re-adjust Hailey because she had totally moved herself off of her pillows and had herself all tangled up. She has been trying very hard to kick off her IV and pulse ox monitor off her right foot.The nurse and respiratory therapist said she did fantastic going off the ventilator. She is on a little bit of oxygen but it is to be expected. The doctors made their rounds around 9:30 a.m. I'll be honest, I didn't understand everything they were talking about but I know the high points. They just removed her Foley catheter and are removing her arterial IV now. They also removed the oxygen monitors off of her head. I decided not to stick around to watch the IV being removed. She wasn't happy when they took off the oxygen monitors so that was enough crying for me for a little bit.It appears that everything is going as it should and she is doing great. She will get a bottle in a little while and we get to hold her! It brings tears to my eyes because I want to scoop her up and just can't right now. I was greeted this morning with the most beautiful sight and the most wonderful sounds. I saw Hailey's beautiful blue eyes and she tried chatting with me a little. Hailey has had quite the journey so far but she seems to be a fighter! We are so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers. We are praying that everything continues on the current path and it is an uneventful recovery. God has been good. He has definitely been taking care of our little baby.We will keep everyone updated throughout the day.
She's a little fiesty...
Posted Jul 13, 2011 10:38pm
Nothing really new to report. Miss Hailey is sound asleep after eating a little over 2 oz in about 4 min. For any of you that have heard us fret and complain, that in itself is fabulous! Most mornings it would take her an hour to drink 2 1/2 oz. She has had 3 bottles today and seems to be working less than she ever has. They ended up not taking out her pacing wires today. They have to change the dressing on her incision and hopefully remove her chest tube tomorrow and the wires are in the same area so they didn't want to disturb her incision unnecessarily. They have lowered her oxygen and her numbers still look fantastic. I'm excited that she is doing so well but am still guarded because I'm always worried that something will go wrong. It is to be expected though. I told someone that yesterday felt like I was jumping out of a plane and my parachute hadn't opened. Then after the surgeon came to talk to us after surgery, it was relief as if our chute had finally opened. We have lived in such fear since Hailey was born of this surgery and the what ifs that go along with it. We feel relief that it is over but some of the fear lingers.I posted last week on my facebook account that "Everyone has a story. Do you stop to notice?" I'll be honest, before Hailey, I didn't always notice or even think about it. Today, I stopped to listen to a story. We were in the family lounge in the CICU waiting for Hailey's IV to be removed when a mom popped in for a snack or something. She asked why we were there so I told her. I was feeling pretty good because we had just listened to rounds and everything was positive. I asked the woman about her daughter. Her daughter has been in here since she was three days old. She is now 5 months old. She had a surgery early on and now is waiting for a heart transplant. She's not the only one in this unit waiting for a new heart. The girl next to Hailey received her precious gift on 7/7. After listening to this mother, I felt empathy for her because I've felt the anxiety and fear of not knowing but then I thanked God because Hailey was doing so well and her condition didn't seem as bad. So now as I pray for Hailey, I also pray for all these other children with CICU as they either continue to fight to survive or are fighting to get stronger after their surgeries. There are a lot of "stories" that we can see clearly as we walk the halls of this hospital and then there are stories that we may never hear told. Jason and I went home this afternoon to visit with the boys and to have dinner with them. Ian looked at me sadly, and said, "Mom, you left Hailey at the hospital all by herself". I explained that she had lots of nurses and doctors watching over her. He seemed okay with that answer. Hopefully, the boys will be able to see their baby sister soon!Jason is home with the boys now and will be back in the morning. Hopefully we will get good news tomorrow during rounds. We'll see. I will try to post pics of peanut tomorrow. Thanking God for a good today and praying for a better tomorrow!
Too Excited to Sleep!
Posted Jul 14, 2011 12:28am
Jason and I missed evening rounds having dinner with the boys so I was just able to speak with the doctor. Actually, he probably thinks Hailey's mom is a nut job. I went from a deep sleep in the lovely recliner to sitting straight up asking how her echocardiogram went. I went to sleep with it on my mind and I was afraid I wouldn't get to talk to the doctor if I didn't do it at that moment. Hailey had a post-surgery echo this morning to see if the holes had closed and the blood was flowing in the right direction. As of this evening, we still had not heard the results of the echo. The doctor delivered wonderful news....the echo showed the holes closed and Hailey's blood is flowing the correct direction! Tears of joy followed...this all started with an echo. It was an echo that showed us that our baby girl had a congenital heart defect and needed open heart surgery and now an echo showed us that the surgeon (with the guidance of God) repaired that same precious heart. So here I sit in the dark of Miss Hailey's ICU room, with my heart too full, to go back to sleep. For the first time in a long time, I think my baby girl is going to be ok.Thank you God!
Another Hurdle Cleared
Posted Jul 14, 2011 10:53am
The team just finished rounds so I thought I would give everyone an update. Hailey is moving out of CICU today into her own room!!! They did give her a dose of morphine (hopefully this will be her last dose) a few minutes ago because they are removing her pacing wires and her chest tube. I opted out of watching that but I'm hoping when we go back in we will get to hold that sweet precious baby! She is still taking her bottles okay. This morning's wasn't great but she has never taken her morning bottle good. I'm afraid she has inherited her father's aversion to breakfast. They are also removing her central line in her neck. She will move to the floor with just her IV in her right hand, heart monitor and pulse ox monitor. I will post a few pics in the few minutes. She has been herself this morning. Kicking and moving up a storm. Every time the nurses move her up on her bed she wiggles herself down before they can even turn their backs. She has been very generous with her smiles and dimples with the staff. I'm looking forward to her own room with more comfortable sleeping arrangements for mom and dad but also because it puts us one step closer to bringing our baby home!
2 days post op
Posted Jul 14, 2011 7:28pm
It is so hard to believe that this bundle of energy had open heart surgery two days ago. Hailey is ready to be on the move. She is rolling up on her side, playing with her toys, and kicking her legs nonstop. She is on minimal pain medicine for the next day or so and then will go home on Tylenol. Saturday they are going to remove the dressing on her incision. She has been eating good. We are increasing her feeds each time to get her back to where she was before the surgery. Hailey is getting lots of visitors that we do not know. We have had several staff members peak in to see the beautiful little girl with dimples! Mom is heading home to spend the night with the boys. Dad is staying with Hailey. We found out while we were here that our neighbor's granddaughter had her second open heart surgery in two weeks so we are all praying for a speedy uneventful recovery for her also.Here is to a good today and better tomorrow!
YEA!!!!
Posted Jul 15, 2011 12:41pm
Hailey is coming home today!!! The boys have arrived safely in Indiana. Michelle will provide more details later. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers!Aunt Kerri via Aunt Staci's login
Wow!
Posted Jul 15, 2011 10:21pm
There really isn't any other way of putting it. Never in a million years would I have dreamed that Hailey would have open heart surgery on Tuesday and be home by Friday. We were hoping to be home by Monday or Tuesday. I came home last night to be with the boys and get some sleep. Boy, did that feel good! Jason called this morning as I was packing up to head to the hospital to tell me that Hailey was being released. During rounds this morning, the director of cardiovascular care looked at the other doctors/residents, etc and asked why Hailey was still in the hospital. They all agreed that her vitals, xrays, etc all looked good. They double checked the results of her echo and said that everything was functioning as it should be. The patch on the VSD looked good as well as the stitches on the ASD. Her blood pressures and pulse ox were all in normal ranges and she was eating good (and gaining weight). I headed back down to the hospital but brought all the stuff I packed because I couldn't still believe they were sending her home. I arrived at the hospital to see my bright blue-eyed little girl happy as could be. We were given our discharge information and instructions on how to remove her dressing from her chest tube. She is down to one medication, lasix, and that is too remove any remaining fluid from her lungs as they adjust to not having all the extra pressure and blood flowing to them. She is on tylenol and ibuprofen every 4 hours for the next two days to wean her down on pain medication. IV pain medicines do such an outstanding job that they didn't want her to go cold turkey and the over the counter meds will take the edge off of any pain she may have. We go back in a couple of weeks to meet with the surgical staff and then her cardiologist two weeks after that.I know that we will have anxiety every time we have to have an echo or we meet with her cardiologist but for now we are celebrating Hailey and our family. She seems happy to be home but very unhappy that it hurts to lay on her chest. She rolled over this afternoon but it was too painful to push herself up so she has decided not to do it again. Although it might be hard for her to try rolling over again, since Daddy has yet to put her down today. We are keeping things low-key for the next week. With the horrible heat that is predicted, we will probably spend the next week in the house letting Little Miss Hailey rest and heal.I don't think either of us can even begin to explain the roller coaster of emotions we have felt in less than 5 days. Fear, anxiety, relief, hope, joy, peace. From the moment we handed Hailey to the surgical team Tuesday morning until we walked into the house this afternoon with Hailey, it has been a whirlwind of feelings. I don't think either of us have even digested everything that has happened. There has been a great deal of adrenaline running through our bodies. It is the only thing that keeps you moving in a forward motion without breaking down. We are so very thankful for the fabulous staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Everyone from the surgeon, nurses, nurse practitioners, residents, med students, fellows, volunteers, security guards treated us with respect and kindness. We will be forever grateful that they gave our baby girl a second chance at living.I want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all of the
thoughts and prayers for Hailey and our family over the past week. She is a very loved little girl! Now, the future holds no limits for our little girl!
thoughts and prayers for Hailey and our family over the past week. She is a very loved little girl! Now, the future holds no limits for our little girl!
