AShley's Health Explained #4

When I left off before, it was late in the evening, and our little angel was finally out of the OR. When we left her that night, and went to the Ronald McDonald house, I don't think we had ever been so exhausted. I was about 17 weeks pregnant with Austin at the time, so I was even more tired than I would have normally been. What they didn't tell us when we left the hospital, was that they didn't know if Ashley would live through the night. Earlier that day, we had witnessed another miracle. They told us our daughter would die in that operating room. But she didn't. She lived. Heavenly Father had a plan for her life, and it wasn't time for her to return to him.

The next day and the few following were awful. I won't lie. She looked awful. When they were finally able to close her chest, it was such a blessing. That meant they didn't have to keep her paralyzed anymore. She stared waking up a bit and moving around. But then the fight with the ventilator began. She would get secretions in her lungs and they would have to suck them out. When they did that, it would make her feel like she couldn't breathe. She would freak out and choke and struggle. It was a nightmare!!!! Then, the wonderful day came when they decided to take her off the vent. It became apparent shortly after extubation, there was a problem. Our rejoicing turned to tears. In her surgery, the siatic nerve was nicked. That caused Ashley's diaphragm to be paralyzed. The diaphragm then ballooned up and collapsed her lung, which in turn made it impossible for her to breathe. Ashley was working so hard, she was a nervous wreck. They made the decision to re-intubate her, and scheduled her for immediate surgery to plicate her diaphragm so it would not collapse the lung again. She went into surgery for that the following day. That surgery was successful and Ashley survived.

They again tried to wean her off the vent, but her oxygen levels were so low, they were afraid to remove it. Her lungs were very wet, especially the left lung that had been collapsed by the diaphragm. They decided to leave her on the vent for a little longer, much to my utter dismay. In the mean time, she was taken to the cath lab to determine the cause of her extremely low saturation levels. She was running around 73% at that time on 100% oxygen on the vent. In the cath, they decided a BT shunt was needed to help bring more oxygen rich blood flow into her lungs, which would help her sats. Thus, another surgery.

In the mean time, her neck line had leaked. The leak was not discovered in time and Ashley developed a large bedsore on her neck. That had to immediately be addressed. The neck line was removed and they put a special dressing over the sore. It was a sticky dressing, and every time they changed it, Ashley would cry in pain. It would pull the little hairs on her neck. It was awful!!

Ashley also at this time, started spiking high fevers, often over 103. It was so scary! Every time she would spike a fever, they would have to draw blood and take urine directly from her bladder via straight catherization. That in itself was awful for our little angel. They felt like she had an infection so they started her on some high powered antibiotics. Every time they ran a bolus of antibiotics into one of her veins, the vein would blow. They would have to call the IV team in to place another IV, which was always difficult, given how delicate her veins already were. They did finally discover she had a C difficle infection from all the antibiotics she had been given. When they got Ashley on the right medication, her fevers finally went away.

Ok, I am falling asleep at the keyboard. I think it is time to hit the sack. Have a great night y'all!!!! (0: