Another surgery

I talked to the nurse a little while ago and she said that Gracie is scheduled to have mitral valve replacement surgery on Monday. I don't know a whole lot of details but will try and catch the doctors tomorrow. I will keep you updated when I know more.

12 days out from surgery

Okay, so surgery went pretty well but we have had some ups and downs since then. Gracie is still on the ventilator. Last Saturday, they tried to take her off and she just was not ready and one of her lungs collapsed so back on she went. They have kept her pretty sedated and sleepy most of the time. She also developed an infection in her lungs called Pseudomonas so they have her on three or four antibiotics

I talked to the cardiologist on Friday and he was not very hopeful that the repair was going to work with Gracie because of the leakage and fluid that was still on her lungs. He said that he thinks that there was going to be a chance greater than 90% that she will have to have a valve replacement very soon.

Last night right before bed, I called to check on Gracie and the nurse said that she was having some breathing difficulties. Being overly protective, I went up there and you could definitely tell she was struggling at each and every breath. They upped the sedation medicine hoping to calm her down, but this morning ended up changing out the ventilator, tubing, and whole thing. Gracie was doing much better today and was resting peacefully. They sent out another culture to see if the infection is still there and we hopefully will know results by Tuesday, but if all goes as planned (I don't know what that is) then Gracie will probably have her mitral valve replace within the next couple of weeks. Please keep praying that she is gaining strength each and every day and that the doctors and nurses that take care of Gracie do whatever is the best thing for her. I told one of the nurses yesterday that I guess we would just have to have her 1st birthday party in the ICU!! It is a very difficult time for all of us and right now the waiting game is just making sure we have patience!

Surgery is over!

The doctor came out a little while ago and said that he was pleased with the surgery. He said that he was able to cut out some muscle and extra tissue in the heart. He said that he also cut some slits in the valve to let the blood flow through more. Dr. Harrell said that the pressures in the heart and the gradient are much better now than they were before surgery.

The recovery is going to be difficult as well, but at least the initial surgery is over, but Gracie is still in critical condition. Keep praying and I will be updating her condition as we know more!!

2nd surgery update

I just talked to the nurse about 10 minutes ago and she said she thought that Dr. Harrell was able to repair the valve. She also said that she was still on the bypass machine and didn't know how much longer it would be. but that she would call after Gracie gets off the bypass machine. She said so far, Gracie is doing great and will let us know.

Update and Pictures

The nurse just called and said that they just now made the incision. She said they had trouble getting the central line in and that she was not even on bypass yet, but literally just made the incision. I will keep you updated.

Surgery day!

About 45 minutes ago, they took Gracie into surgery. They are expecting it to take about 5 hours or so, which is a lot less than we expected so we will just have to wait and see. The nurse said that she would try to call and give us updates every hour or so on what is going on and how Gracie is doing. Keep praying and I'll update a little bit more when I know more.

Where did the time go?

Okay, so this is just going to be an update blog. Blogger and the computer are being really really slow today so I am not messing with pictures. Anyway, the summer has flown by and I am back at school already. It was really hard but we are all adjusting.

This summer was a great one. Callie and Kadee did swimming lessons, and me and the girls took a trip with Mom, Dad, and Kristi to Ruidoso which is always fun. Most of all, we enjoyed staying at home, playing, and relaxing for most of the summer.

Gracie is still doing good. We went and got flu shots yesterday. Gracie weighs 11 pounds 3 ounces and has both ears infected. She is a little grumpy but will still put a smile on her face and her face lights up so bright when she sees you. We go to the cardiologist on Friday so I will hopefully update on Sunday afternoon or sometime the next week.

Kadee is in the process of getting potty trained. We started on Sunday and she would not even sit on the toilet. Today she has only had one accident and that was because she couldn't get her shorts off fast enough. I am going to love only changing one girls diapers instead of two when she is done!!!

Callie is growing and always learning. She asks a ton of questions everyday and is always thinking. She keeps me up on my toes for sure! She had her last gymnastics yesterday and is going to play soccer this fall, so we will see how that goes!

That is about all I can think of without boring you. Look for pictures in the next week or so! And by the way happy birthday to one of the greatest nieces, Macy turning 6 today and my cousin Andy's boy Braxton turning 5 today!!!