An update

I apologize for the lack of updates. Only now, 24 hours after surgery has Gracie been able to really get some rest. When we first saw Gracie after surgery yesterday I was kind of in a false sense of security. Gracie came out without the breathing tube and with her chest close, she has NEVER done that before. Gracie, though extremely agitated was coherent enough to distract her from flailing for a time, but she was putting out too much blood through her chest tubes. So in an attempt to calm her down, two doses of morphine were given and yet nothing seemed to help her. So the doctors decided to give Grace a dose of Ativan, she finally calmed down, but then her blood pressure was too low and she still was bleeding quite a bit. Gracie soon became unresponsive and nothing the docs did would arouse her so a med was given to reverse the morphine. So basically the last 24 hours has been a dance in trying to figure out the right combination of drugs to make Gracie calm enough to slow down the bleeding, keep her comfortable, and keep blood pressure in an acceptable range. After she got multiple doses of blood transfusions, a dose of fresh, frozen plasma, and platelets she is more stable and relaxed. But because so much product was pushed we are very much fluid positive, she has a plural effusion already and in the course of a couple hours her chest got quite a bit more hazy.

So the plan is just to keep her comfortable and get her to pee. Talking to the cardiologist we are just taking it slow and watching what transpires.

We are holding up pretty well. I think the doctors that aren't familiar with Gracie think I must be nuts because they keep apologizing for such the rough path so far, and I keep saying that Gracie is doing beautiful. I guess it's all relative, once you've been throughbwhat Gracie's been through this seems so much easier.