Back on the Floor

Well, Sydney is back in her room on the Acute Care Ward ~ in fact, her PICU stay was almost exactly twenty four hours.  It's nice to be back in the big room and it feels like a step closer to home...but it's still a rough road.  Sydney is really struggling with the pain, more so than she ever seems to have had before.  She also has a juicy cough and it's hard for her to get move the junk out of her lungs when it hurts to cough.  And to top it off, her fever is back ~ 101.5 at 7:30.  Her heart rate is pretty high, around 145, but we think it's related to the fever and the pain.  We're waiting and hoping that the Tylenol helps with both.

In good news, she got her foley catheter out and has done all her business (big step after surgery).  She got an extra dose of Lasix today to help her pee off some the fluid she's been holding.  It seems to have helped, but she's still really puffy around her eyes, her feet, and definitely around her belly.  Her belly button has become our "turkey timer,"  when it's flat, her belly is fine, but when it pops out, we know she's holding fluid!

The pain with this surgery has been intense and sort of unexpected.  Last night was really long for Sydney and Christy ~ lots of thrashing around like nothing she's done before, moaning, crying out, and general discomfort.  On top of that, she had the fever. While no one is really worried, to be on the safe side, they ran a culture on her blood.  We should get the preliminary results tonight.  Most likely the fever is just a reaction to surgery, or maybe a little infection she caught before the surgery.  Interestingly, when she's in pain and asked to point to what hurts, she points directly at the pacemaker, not her incision.  Apparently that's pretty normal because to get the canister in, the surgeon has to cut through muscle and wiggle around under her ribs.

Thanks for the prayers, they are so important.

Josie