Yesterday was nothing like we expected it to be. Unreal.
We go to the hospital yesterday at 9:30 a.m. and she got called into surgery at 1:30 p.m. Things didn't go exactly perfect. There was a problem when they were putting the new catheter in. They put a 'soft 'wire in where the old catheter goes and were planning to put the new catheterin the same place. That wire they put in to "keep the place" of the catheter line poked too far down and cut into the right aterium of the heart. Blood started to flow into the sac around the heart and it started to clot. The surgeon didn't think it was going to cause a problem, and her vitals seemed okay. So they left everything alone, got the new catheter in okay, and finished surgery.
Right in the middle of this surgery, the transplant surgeon got a call that there was a kidney and liver available for Claire. Their plan was to proceed to transplant after the organs arrived about 8 hours later.
After the surgery they brought Claire up to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit to recover. We got to see her in the room as they tried to get her settled. She was still out from the anthiesia, had a breating tube in, and had one IV through her hand. As they tried to get her settled, more and more doctors came in and surrounded her bed. We could sense something was not right. I looked at her last blood pressure and it was 50/23. Very LOW. Too low. They couldn't get her blood pressure to come up and with about 13 people surrounding her bed and frantically working on her, they decided to take her back to the operating room and see what was going on with her heart. They figured the blood clot that was in the sac of her heart was compressing against her heart and not allowing it to work properly, thus the low pressure. They rushed her to the OR.
2 hours later, the surgoen came out and with a sigh of relief said "she's okay." Good news is she's okay and they got the problem resolved. Bad news is it took open heart surgery to do it. They cut open her sternum, opend up the area, and found a rather large clot flopping around her heart. They took the clot out. There was indeed a hole in the right aterium were the blood was leaking into the heart, which then clotted and grew bigger and bigger. They sewed the small puncture closed so it wouldn't leak more blood into the sac around the heart and closed her back up. Her sternum was closed shut with wire and they stiched her skin back up.
The transplant surgeon was following this whole surgery and her gut feeling was to NOT proceed to transplant. Recovering from open heart surgery is a BIG deal, in and of itself. Adding transplant on top of that didn't seem like a wise decision. After talking with ALL the doctors under Clarie's care, they offically decided that even though the organs did arrive and would have been a suitable match for her, they would pass on the transplant.
Those organs must not have been the right ones for Claire. Too bad she had to go through all of this for us to find that out.
She is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the cardiology department. She still is out with the anthesia and has a breating tube. She has 5 IV's coming from her body. One in each foot. One in each groin. One in her left hand. They also placed a tube coming out from her heart to drain an more excess blood that may still be ramaining around that sac in the heart. The catherter placed for dialysis is working well.
To say that she could have been taken from this earth more than once yesterday would be truthful. You could see that look of worry on many faces. Miracles still do occur.
Main focus for today is getting the breating tube out this afternoon and allow her to wake up. Pretty sure she's not going to be a happy girl when she wakes up. Other top priority is to get fluid off from her. She got almost 2 Liters of fluid yesterday through the surgeries, a blood transfusion, and other liquid medication she's been given. Not having working kidneys, all that fluid just stays in her body and makes her puffy. We did dialysis last night and removed very little fluid because her blood pressure was still quite low and removing fluid only makes blood pressure lower. She is currently on dialysis and they are removing more fluid. It will take 2-3 days to slowly get all the fluid off. We can't do it fast because we dont' want her blood pressure to drop too fast.
Pray for the princess.
1 comment:
Miracles definitely DO still happen. Every time I read your posts I am in awe of all that you have been through & all you continue to face. You are constantly in my thoughts & prayers. I pray that Claire continues to improve & that she will be ready when the next call comes for her transplants. She is so strong & so special!! I will keep praying for the princess!! LOVE YOU ALL!!! XOXO
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