Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Skin Graft update

I was asked to be at the hospital this morning before 7am to talk with the plastic surgeon before the surgery. When I got to Grace's bedside i did my normal surveying of her IV tree to see if there were any changes to her meds and I noticed that her Heparin (blood thinner) was still on. This surprised me because normally for any surgical procedure it has been turned off at least four hours before hand; so I asked the nurse and the doctor and they said that the surgeon must have felt that the procedure was not too intense but she would follow up before they took Grace to make sure that the OR just didn't realize she was on it still.

So about 2o minutes later the Surgeon came by and explained that the heparin did in deed need to be off and to be sure he wanted it off for at least 12 hours (even though it only has a half life of 4 hours) because any blood clots that form could prevent the graft from taking and the whole procedure would have been lost. Needless to say we won't be going to the OR until Friday.

Other than that, Grace is doing well, just resting and gaining her strength. The doctors are just letting her be until after surgery. We did however move rooms yesterday--we no longer are in our private little room--we are out in the main area where it is quite busy and noisy. I know they moved us because Grace is doing better, but still it is a hard move--Gracie really does like it quiet. But I guess it is good preparation for when she comes home and will have to deal with the noise from Morgan and all of our freshman boys.

3 comments:

Shayla Taylor said...

That's so great that you are so attentive. Way to catch that. She will do great.

Em said...

I was pretty mad after talking to Jason. They need to be more attentive and pay attention to things like that! We love Gracie more and more, and just can not wait for her to get home!
Love you guys!

Sherie said...

Catching up after being internet-less for a while. You guys are so awesome! I was so happy to read that things are going well! Anxiously and prayerfully awaiting news on the skin graft.