Brithday Parties to Newest Addition of Tidwell Family

Where has the time gone?!!!! I don't know what I have been doing but honestly, I almost forgot that I have a blog! Things have been pretty busy and crazy around the Tidwell household the last month.

Summer fun!

After getting home, we had a birthday party for Callie since Todd and I were in Houston on her real birthday so she thought she got to grow some more since she had two birthday parties this year.

Cake for a Princess! Thanks Mema!

Kadee just waiting to put her finger in the icing.

The next weekend it was Kadee's turn! I can't believe how much she has grown in the last year and that she is already 2!!!! She is one of the sweetest girls you know. She will give a hug to almost anyone.

The latest last week was that Kadee went to the cardiologist and he said that she still has the hole in her heart but that it is small and doesn't want to do anything but give it time to close on its own. If it doesnt' and this will be down the road, he will close it through the cath lab so it would not be open heart surgery! Good news.

Gracie got her 4 month shots (yes, I know she is almost 6 months!!!) last Thursday. She was 21 inches long and 7 pounds 8 ounces!!! She said that she looked great and did some lab work which all came back looking really good. We also went to the cardiologist Friday and he was still pleased with how everything is looking just wants to monitor her closely in case of any major changes. He still thinks that she will have more surgeries down the road but seems more optimistic on how she will do. Luckily, this time she didn't throw up on him!

Callie got her ears pierced in the last couple of weeks. She kept asking Todd and he finally gave in. She was a real trooper and didn't even cry, but afterward told me and Todd, "That really hurt!!" She wanted to take them out the first night, but now forgets they are in her ears! I can't believe she is getting so big.

And to the last thing, Todd planted the garden and we have some more animals in the Tidwell household (or outside I guess you could say.) Any guesses? ..............................................................If you know Todd, you know he would have one of every kind if he could but the newest animals to the family are 4 chickens!!! Call us crazy (or at least Todd) but he does all the feeding and caring for all animals, so that makes 2 dogs, a rabbit, 4 fish, and 4 chickens!

Hopefully the next post will not be so long awaited. I know how much you all have missed me!!! (just kidding, but I will do better

We're home!!!!

We arrived back in Lubbock at 4:00 today! We walked of the plane and there was quite a crowd. Our parents, sisters, a lot of friends, and some of Todd's co-workers were all there. What an awesome feeling to know that so many people care. There were signs and balloons and cameras all over the place! It was great homecoming. Thanks to everyone who came.

It feels so good to be under one roof again. More pictures and posts later. Goodnight and we can't wait to see you soon!!

Goodbye Houston...Welcome home Lubbock!!!

Well we have been released from the hospital! Gracie is doing well. She is still off oxygen and had a great night. We are heading home to Lubbock today!!!! Finally! Last night while we were packing and Todd was on top of our suitcases trying to get them close, it just doesn't seem real yet. I don't think that it will until we are actually on the plane and land in Lubbock. We land at 4:00 and I will post more later.

We can't express our thanks again and again for how grateful we are to have had such the support and love shown while here in Houston.

Love,

Robyn and Todd

Hopefully heading home soon

Gracie has been doing very well since the last update. Over the weekend, they tried to wean off the oxygen but were unsuccessful (they did not try Sunday), but were successful on taking her off the ativan and methadone. Gracie had spit up some on Sunday and so they wanted to do another chest x-ray and call in a pulmonary doctor to see if there was anything they could do to help Gracie get off oxygen. Yesterday, Gracie was not a happy camper, but was doing very well with out the oxygen except for when she did try to sleep. She would not eat or sleep and had been up since 5 am. Needless to say Todd and I was worn out, a little grumpy, and very frustrated. The pulmonary doctors came by yesterday and said that there was not anything that they thought needed to be done or that would help Gracie but that it would just take time to get her off the oxygen. The night shift nurse came in when the pulmonary doctor was in here and heard the part about being on it a while probably so immediately turned the oxygen back on after she left. I was not very nice to this nurse because she would come in and wanted to force Gracie to eat all her bottles every three hours and what did Gracie do.......throw up all over me. So I told her that Gracie had not been eating well Monday, had not slept, and I would rather her NOT come in and wake her up, but if she wanted to come in and force feed her, she was more than welcome to and that she would probably be covered in throw up so I guess she decided to leave us alone.

Anyway, enough about the grumpiness and nurses...we are just ready to be home. The nurse turned off the oxygen today and Gracie has done well all day. The doctors came in this morning and said that there was no way of getting Gracie home on the airplane because they still want her to have oxygen and the only way they will release us was if we were going to drive. They said that there was a lot of extensive phone calls done on Monday and that there was nothing possible for Gracie to have that the airlines would approve, so we would be driving home. So I got on the Internet and decided to do some more investigating. I found on Southwest there was some companies that deal with airline approved oxygen so I called them and they said yes she should be able to use those and that they could overnight one. The pulmonary doctor came back in today and thought that it would be fine to use and if it was a higher dose than what Gracie needs, we could use a mask and she would not get as much that way, so I told this to the discharge nurse and she said, "I thought I knew everything that has to deal with pediatrics, and I have never heard of this." SO that is the way this day has gone...BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ANYWAY...............Gracie is probably going to be released tomorrow and hopefully we will get to fly home on Friday!!!!!! If not, Todd and I will drive home, but let's all hope and pray we can fly. I will keep you updated and let you know something hopefully tomorrow and know definitely when we will be home!

Here are some pics with Gracie sitting in the toy at the hospital. We had to use about 4 blankets and you couldn't see her feet at the bottom. **Notice there is nothing in her nose!!!

Easter...

Well, Gracie had an Easter dress, but as you figured out, she didn't get to wear it. Yes she will wear it the very first Sunday she gets to go to church though and NO Todd and I didn't just leave her naked. We found an Easter outfit that will just have to do for now! She still looked very cute!

We forgot to take a bow up to the hospital, so the nurses made one out of the stuff they put on you after they draw blood...pretty creative!

Gracie and the hiccups along with her happy Easter message.

It's all good...

Gracie has taken many steps this week all in the right direction. On Thursday, Gracie's breathing tube was taken out and she did great. They kept repeating blood gases and even though she was not happy since they would not let her eat, her gases were still good. They had Gracie on 3 liters of oxygen. You could barley hear Gracie cry even with the breathing tube out, or if you could hear her, it was horse.

Friday, they decided to take out her chest tube and pedi catheter, so again more blood gases, with no food and all turned out great as well. They also started feeding Gracie by mouth Friday night. She was not sure at first, but ended up doing well. Oxygen level was 1 liter.

Saturday, Gracie continued to make progress. They took out her arterial line and decreased the oxygen to 1/2 liter. Since they took out the art line, we were able to hold, feed, and rock Gracie to sleep! That was a great feeling since it had been 2 weeks!!! They weighed Gracie last night and she weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce!!!!!!! I thought it would take us a while longer to get to the 6 pound mark, but Gracie took a growth spurt while we have been here.

Today, we have been moved back down to the 15th floor and will be here until we get out of the hospital. They are only monitoring her oxygen level and hoping to decrease that over the next couple of days. If all goes well, and Gracie does well feeding and gaining weight, we will be released from the hospital and then in Houston until the follow up check up with either the cardiologist or surgeon about a week later.

All the prayers, cards, and calls, have been such a blessing to Todd and I and have given us so much support! It is so hard in words to tell you how thankful we are to have so many people that care about us. Hopefully we will see you all very very soon!

Making Progress!!

Gracie has taken big big steps for a little bit her size yesterday and today.

Tuesday:
Yesterday when we got to the hospital, they had weaned her oxygen level down to 55% and stopped giving her the morphine. They also started giving her versed and milirinone to help with the withdrawal symptoms. The echo cardiogram done on Monday looked really good with Gracie's heart functioning much better than before surgery. The doctors decided to leave the chest tube in for another couple of days just to make sure everything is going okay with that. Tuesday, they weaned down her oxygen level but wanted to leave the nitrous oxide alone to make sure that Gracie is tolerating it well.

Wednesday:
This morning, Gracie was at 40% oxygen and they turned down the nitrous oxide to 5 from 10 on Tuesday. They also gave her a trial hour to see how well she did breathing on her own and only having the ventilator on for backup support. Gracie passed that test with flying colors and her blood gas looked great afterwards, so they decided to give her another test this afternoon but for 2 hours. I talked to the nurse and she said that Gracie did great through the afternoon 2 hour trial and her blood gas looked good again.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....the plan for tomorrow is to try and get Gracie off the vent and remove some of the other lines!!!!! Yeah!!!! They are not going to let her eat after 5am and will give her IV fluids until after they extubate her.

Gracie is very alert and just looks around. Sometimes it is very hard because you can tell she is crying and you can't pick her up, but hopefully really soon. If Gracie does okay with all that, they will watch her a couple of days in CVICU and then move her to the 15th floor for a few more days. This could mean we may be home around this time in 2 weeks!!!!! Keep hoping and praying that this will be the case!