Madelynn was in the CardioVascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) being cared for by some of the most amazing nurses and staff I have ever met. She seemed to be doing well and being naive and un-educated about what was really happening I had no idea what was about to happen. I could not sit at the hospital hour after hour so I convinced my employer to let me work part time until Madelynn was moved to Progressive Care.
The very first day of part time work Madelynn was moved to a different room in the CVICU. We knew this would happen but I was not prepared for the call I received. The nurse called me to tell me while they were moving her, her lung collapsed, she stopped breathing and they had to re-intubate her. She was now back on the ventilator. She was also diagnosed with strep-pnuemonia. My heart fell. I had about two hours left before I would head to the Hospital to see her.
The next few days were going to be very difficult for Madelynn and she was going to need to fight like she never had before. She was very sick. They told us until they had a true diagnosis they had to treat her with some hardcore drugs. Her poor body was withering away. She was losing weight quickly. Her body had gone through such a major ordeal with the change in blood flow that feeding her was going to be incredible slow.
This was another ordeal I was not prepared for. Madelynn was such a great eater prior to surgery. She had to re-learn how to eat. The nurses became some of her strongest advocates and told the doctors and staff what they believed she could handle and what she couldn't. Looking back on this part of her recovery this was harder for me to sit and watch than the day I waited for the surgery to be over. There were so many nights I slept in her hospital room and cried. Just praying and hoping she would be strong enough to survive.
One of things that helped get me through was the weekend of my mother's birthday. This was the weekend Madelynn was supposed to be baptized. Everyone already had their plane tickets so my brother and sister used their tickets and came in town anyway. Late one night while they were all here my parents, brother, sister, Phil and I all went to dinner. It was one of best nights I have ever had. We laughed so much and I really needed that.
There will be three more posts to this story but they will be over the next few weeks.
TTFN
1 comment:
That night was so much fun in the midst of a terrible experience for you all. (After I told Dave about it, he was completely disappointed that he missed it!) I'm glad we were there and could provide a little bit of relief from the stress of that time.
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