Elena Update: Wed, 11.4.09

Elena Update: Wed, 11.4.09

Tues, 11.3.09
1.) Elena had her first chest tube removed at 0900 by Dr. Bryant. The whole procedure took about 25 sec. He removed the tape & white gause bandage from her right side (about 15 sec). Snipped the 2 stitches that were sewn from her chest to the tube to hold the chest tube in place (about 5 sec) & then pulled the 3.5"-4" of tubing out of her little chest cavity (about 5 sec).

Needless to say, over the course of the past 2.5 weeks, Elena has developed a "small" dose of "white coat prejudice"... (and "no", contrary to the political pundits out there, it's not a racial thing.) It's just a prejudice thing...against just about anyone out there that looks like they may be in the medical profession that starts to encroach on Elena's comfort zone...she starts with a little whimper...& the closer they get...that cute little whimper turns into a "I'm gonna cry my little eyes out until you slowly back away from my body with whatever you were planning on poking or prodding me with!!" Poor thing.

So as soon as she saw her favorite surgeon, Dr Bryant, crossing the threshold of her room, with his doctor scrubs on, her cute little whimper was the 2-sec vocal warm up phase for the all out Niagra Falls water show!

But, Dr. B did another excellent job & so did Elena...the newly named Cape Fear Valley Hospital Warrior Princess (CFVHWP). She's definitely earning her 'stripes', I'd say. She's tough as railroad spikes. Oh, that "CFVHWP" acronym was for all you 'military types' that were having acronym withdrawals reading my update.

After 5-10 min, Elena regained her composure & just whimpered for a little bit. She did great.

2.) Later in the day, Mica & Sissy, the Physical Therapists, came by to stick Elena in her little blue physical therapy chair. As per the pics on Facebook, Elena wasn't too big a fan initially. However, they had mentioned that her displeasure was probably more due to the fact that Elena just hasn't hardly moved at all in 2-weeks. Imagine how rickity & sore you'd be if you were stuck in bed for 2-weeks. Plus, she's still very weak...again, for not moving for so long. Her head flopped like a little bobblehead doll & her arms remained fairly limp.

I volunteered to engineer some small skateboard-sized wheels underneath Elena's blue physical therapy chair, paint some small orange & yellow flames on the side of it & practice her "horizontal speed-time-distance hallway motion control ability". I confidently ensured them my research for this new cutting edge training was from the already-famous top medical journal that I have been consistently referring to over the past week. I argued that the simple exercise of me pushing my CFVHWP down the 250 yard hallway dodging the nurses, patients & doctors at elevated speeds would cause Elena's mental & physical alertness & enjoyment to increase substantially, thus releasing very healing powerful soy & whey chemicals into the nuero transmitters of the body's Neuro Processing Device (a.k.a. NPD--Grey's anatomy complex medical verbiage for "brain")...thus, wherefore, unto causing a quick & very "speedy" recovery.

Again...I was tritely rebutted with "rolly-polly" eyes, a low mumble mutter of profanity ever-so-delicately bandaged as technical medical jargon & a quick "about face" of the medical coats & off into the never-ending pediatric hallway. (just kiddin...) :-)

3.) Shortly after the PTs came in, the Speech Therapists, Joe & Casey followed. They checked for her ability to open her mouth, the use of her tongue & her ability to ensure any food she swallowed went down the propper pipe. Like any good dad, I quickly volunteered to "lead by example" for my little girl by eating the bag of animal crackers they had brought in for Elena. For some unknown reason, they declined. I ensured them that I was just doing my fatherly duty...still to no avail.

4.) Then, close behind all the many therapists we had in our already very very spacious shoebox of a room, came Dr. Sanchez & his merry band of medical brethren & sistren(?). To which of course, Elena began "warming up" the vocal chords just a smidgeon.

Dr. Sanchez reiterated that Elena will need to be on the antibiotics for a total of 11 more days. She'll also need to continue the weening-off meds to minimize the withdrawals she's experiencing. I'm hoping & praying that we'll be able to finish out the majority of the antibiotics & weening-off process at the house.

He also stated she'll need to continue on with Physical Therapy for a week or two--sitting up, crawling, walking, talking, etc. Again, I'm praying we'll be able to do that as an out-patient.

5.) Last night was pretty rough on our little super trooper. She had a very difficult time getting comfortable. Her withdrawals were kicking in & she was constantly wiggling & moving her arms & legs. The concern was that she might unknowingly grab her feeding tube going into her nose or her last remaining chest tube or any of the three heart-monitor wires. She did manage to grab both tubes a couple times throughout the night, but fortunately Ranger Papa was on guard duty & quickly awoke from my "alert" fatigue-stupor & was able to prevent her from yanking either tube outta their snug secure orafices. Needless to say, it was a long night for big papa & Elena.

The awesome blessing was that I was able to rock her in a rocking chair from about 0230-0500. I absolutely love rockin my kid & singing her some little Spanish ballads, while I still can. It's a little bit of heaven on earth.

But it's quite an ordeal transferring kid to rocking chair & then back from rocking chair to bed with the myriad of wires & tubes hooked up to her. Arms & legs flopping everywhere amidst the gaggle of circuitry. It's kinda like playing twister while hooked up to about 3 or 4 different monitors. Try it sometime & you'll know what we looked like scooping her up from bed to chair & back again.

I think she slept an hour or two during our rocking session last night.

6.) Today, was definitely an improvement from yesterday. She was moving a little more this morning. A little more interactive.

She even slept 8 hrs today! One of us was still bedside with her the entire time b/c periodically in the middle of her sleep all 4 appendages would flail in the air, eyes would pop open & she would