Progress!

The balloon pump has been removed. Now mom only has the pacemaker to remind her heart of its rhythm. They drained off 4 liters of fluid and the eye blister is nearly gone. What a miraculous day it's been for Mom. Tomorrow they will start moving her limbs and see how well she does. It will still be a while before the breathing tube goes. She was pretty sedated but kept trying to get her hands there. That's her worst nightmare even sedated.

Well good night on such a good night ;)

Tuesday is a good day!

Stopped by at 9:30am today to visit my mom. She was more awake and had her eyes open a bit. She looked at me and followed my face for a bit then drifted off. She did this several times. I'm sure she wanted to tell me something but she can't. She kept struggling against her arm restraints-she's getting restless.

The good news is they have dialed back the balloon pump further and things are looking great. The nurse was even hopeful that they could take her off of it tonight! That would be miraculous.

She is also breathing on her own. They have oxygen going but she's now doing all the work herself. That could mean she might be awake and out of the ICU soon. That is such a great accomplishment.

Over all a very good morning! Thanks to all you who are help make this happen with all your thoughts and prayers.

Just talked with mom's nurse. They have dialed back her balloon pump to a 1-2 ratio and she's doing well. Going to try to change it up again in the morning. Once she can handle a 1-4 ratio the pump can come out and she can be less sedated. That's the next goal to shoot for. Then next goes the breathing tube. This is such good news.

Monday

Well the good news is Bonnie's color is coming back and her hands are no longer ice cold. The nurse's have started adjusting her balloon pump (which helps control how much blood is going out of her heart) to beat every other beat. It's just temporary but it helps them know how strong she's getting. They also have been reducing the blood pressure meds (there are 3) slowly.

Today they installed a feeding tube in mom's nose. But it's a good thing because her digestive system needs to start back to work. This is so good! That means the bloating will go down since she will get food in her intestine instead of in her blood. They asked about any food allergies and I didn't know. If anyone knows, send me a message. Marci thinks maybe wheat.

While I was there, the nurse changed the tie around her head. Not sure how much more mom can be tortured with her clausterphobia but they are sure working her! Good thing she's sedated.

It does look like the pacemaker might be permanent, at least for a while. Her heart beat is very irregular and it makes a difference to have that firing off beats.

The lining of her eyes has also been expanding with all the liquid. She's developed what almost look like blisters on her eyes. The nurse said this would go away when the swelling goes down. They look awfully painful though.

My dad is doing ok. He mostly deals by staying positive and busy. He's been working off and on and will probably work is temple shift this week. Last night he started the laundry for the first time in his life. This morning he called wanting to know how the get the dryer door open. I tried to help him telling him to turn it off or stop they cycle and it would unlock. I guess not. Marci even stopped by to help him open the dryer door. After several tries she told him to try opening the other side, the side that actually does the opening. That was a good laugh.

Think this is getting harder on little Dougie (yes I see the irony). He misses mom and has had 2 seizures today. He gets stressed out from noise and has been staying with Marci during the day so he's not alone.

I am really hopeful that she will only be in the ICU for 3 more days. Eventhough the pictures are frightful she really is looking better and I can't wait to walk in and see her sitting up with her eyes open. Although we do think it will be weeks before she will leave and months before she's able to care for herself, it is starting to look more and more possible.

Thanks for your kindness to my family. I'm starting to feel the wear of this all but so thankful for all the help.

Monday Jan 30, 2012 9:45am

Sunday

For the most part, Bonnie is in a drug induced coma. The nurses bring her out once a day in the mornings and say she's neurologically still with us. Today she had retained much more fluids and looked extremely bloated and puffy. They estimate she has more than 25 lbs of extra liquid in her body.

The good news is she's making slow progress. The top half of her heart (what was worked on in surgery) continues to beat at a slower pace than the bottom. Once that catches up and her heart's output ejection rate raises, she'll be ready to come out of the ICU. For now it looks like 2-3 more days in this same mode.

We are hoping that the breathing tube will come out today or tomorrow which means less sedation. She's pretty much breathing on her own. She'll will be so happy to have that tube out. However, the sedative she's on also effects her memory and she won't remember any of what happens to her while in the ICU. Good thing!

At some point the nurse will start a feeding tube since her digestive organs need to wake up and this will help.

As a family we are trying not to stimulate her by talking, waking her, or touching her too much. All these things, which she'd love to have, only puts her heart in a critical mode by removing the little oxygen that is present. So for now we are letting her sleep and hope she knows how many people are praying for her recovery, some how I think she knows. Like the nurse said Sunday, "This woman is a fighter!"

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Some times I haven't been able to get back to friends and family who have called. It's been very draining to keep discussing the new developments 5-6 times a day with my siblings and then to add others it gets so overwhelming. So I appreciate you checking in on this blog. Makes my family happy to have me off the phone. For a bit anyway.

Keep you updated!

Nurse's report

Marci's mother-in-law, Mina, is a nurse. She called and spoke to mom's nurse and gave us more details of the surgery--

Bonnie's kidneys are doing better, all organs including her lungs are ok.

They are doing another echo cardiogram today to see how her heart is doing.

Sedation is critical to keep her alive.

The did 3 things in surgery:

1. Aortic valve replacement

2. Mitral valve replacement

3. Maze proceedure-done to stop the irregular heart beat (atrial fibrillation)

While doing the maze , the mitral valve started leaking.

Fortunately the medication that was the scariest has been stopped. More to come.

We are having Mina over to my house Sunday night at 7pm to give us more details. If you'd like to come call me 801-815-2249

Saturday

Saw mom around 10:30am Saturday morning. Her coloring looked better but she really heavily medicated. The tubes may come out soon and they might put in a feeding tube so her organs can wake up from the medication. Not much happening today since they want her to rest and have her sleeping heavily

The lastest

SATURDAY MORNING
Called at 6am and spoke with Dale. He said she was doing good. They gave her 1 more unit of blood and she'd probably need 1 more soon.
She's O+ which is so mom. If I remember right A/B blood types can also take O. That's mom, she does things for everyone and anyone.
She was coming off the blood pressure medications. Off one of them and the other one her dose size was going down. That was very good.
She's breathing fast though, he said overbreathing.
She's comfortable, semi-sedated
The temporary pacemaker is helping her slow heart rhythm which wasn't adequite.
I asked if it was better to have us there or have people stay away.
He said she gets very aggitated when we are there and she needs less stimulus and they want her to remain calm more. So we will need to slow down our visits and help her stay resting.

More later.

Next day

FRIDAY

I called at 7am to see how mom's night was. Dale, her dedicated nurse, said she was more alert and complained her mouth was dry-which was her complalint before surgery. She was given 2 units of blood but lost of liter in the night. He did say she was very sick and very weak and dependent on the medication and balloon pump. If she lost her breathing tube or the pump it was be fatal. But he said she was hanging in there.

I went to visit her around 9:30am. She looked less puffy and had a shade more of color. She was much more responsive. When I say responsive -she moved her eyes more and tried to move her mouth. When I told her I had to go she lifted her hand a bit. She is in restraints so she didn't get far but that was something. She looked better than the night before but it still hurt to see her like this. Her hands were still very cold but I felt her move her fingers a few times trying to squeeze my hand.

Marci, Doug, Jeff and my dad were all there when I stopped by a little later. Marci asked if she should take a picture for the kids and mom nodded her head yes. We asked her a few questions-would she do it again -no, she shook.

Throughout the day she tried harder and harder to communicate but we couldn't quite understand. She got aggitated when someone tried to leave and kept trying to sit up. Although only semi-conscious, the nurse put her on a drip so she wouldn't be too awake and mess up her breathing tube or a line in an iv.

The surgeon stopped by and said their original plan of being in the ICU for 3-4 days was wrong, it would be much longer.

When the hospital doctor finally came with the echo-cardiogram results, she said that the left side of mom's heart wasn't working as well as the right.

We all loved seeing her. Little Dougie stayed back. I asked him what he thought about mom and he didn't respond.

"Did she scare you?"

He grunted, which means either way

"Do you want to see her again when she can sit up and talk?"

Yes

Jeff stayed with her most of the day. He tried to leave and she wanted to get up, maybe to stop him. He ended up sneaking out.

Marci went back later and said that mom was starting to get bed sores so the nurse put her on her side but that made breathing hard. Mom started complaing about her stomach hurting.

Later that night they switched her bed and it unsettled her. Her bed sores are getting worse. They gave her more pain killers and she was very out of it. Greg came and put some music on for her. She didn't like it. Then he put on the Tabernacle Choir and she liked it. Marci thought that was funny.

This is the best angle and picture that Marci could take of her. She's much more puffy and bruised on the other side.

Mom's Heart Surgery

Thursday

Mom went in for surgery prep at 7:30am. They thought she would go in at 8:30am or 9am and be finished by 1pm.

She seem happy. The nurse asked her what her favorite color was and she said, "It used to be blue but now it's orange." She mentioned my dad had just bought her an orange purse that she was happy about.

When they asked her what her full name was she said, "Bonnie Pace." The nurse looked at her strange since that's not the name on the paperwork. I reminded her of her name and that they didn't want to know her email address. She laughed.

I left and went home to get my kids to school. My brother Jeff came down to the IMC in Murray at 9:30am to wait for details in the waiting room.

It was a long day and we received a few updates. They planned on replacing 1 heart valve with a bio-mechanical device but while there decided to replace 2. From what I have gathered they were concerned about a third valve and after it started leaking the surgeon fixed that one. After they fininished her blood pressure was too low so they installed a temporary pump to help her heart beat harder and faster. They finally closed her chest around 7pm. Not everything went as planned and the surgery went far longer than expected. In the end they installed a temporary pacemaker to help as well.

Thinking that she'd be out soon, me and my brother, Greg joined my dad and Jeff in the waiting room for a few hours but I left before they finished surgery to go home for Jonah's birthday dinner.

The doctor came out and spoke to the guys and said she was out but it was going to be a longer recovery.

I came back over to the hospital about 8pm to get into the ICU with my dad and Jeff. They finally let us back to see her around 8:30pm.

I have to say I was warned but not prepared for how different she looked. It scared me. She was bloated from all the medications- her tongue was too big for her mouth. She looked like they'd pumped her up with air like a bouncy ball. Everything was ballooned and extended. Mom's skin was the whitest I had ever seen and I feared she was gone.

She did blink a bit and the nurse said she was responding to him when he asked her to squeeze his hand or wiggle her toes but I didn't see that. Her feet were in knee high soft boots and her hands were ice cold.

My dad and brother gave her a blessing. We all tried not to let her know how bad she looked if she could hear us. This scared us all so much that none of us knew what would happen next. I personally didn't not believe she's last much longer. This surgery was to extreme for her weak body and it showed how much it had taken from her.

I stayed and held her frozen hand as long as I could with out being in the way. I didn't talk much to her since it was so late but told her I would be back to see her tomorrow as would little Dougie.

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture. It was far to hard to see again.

Tracking Mom's heart surgery

Wednesday January 25, 2012

Went to stay overnight with mom. She was pretty quiet and thought I was just there to visit. She kept saying, "Go home and sleep. I can't sleep well if you are here." She didn't want to have to entertain me and just wanted to eat candy and read. We ended up watching the news and they came in to give her a sleeping pill. She didn't sleep til about midnight though. Think she was feeling nervous but kept talking about how happy she'd be when the surgery was over.

Didn't sleep for long before they came in to take her blood at 3:30am! So early. She went back to sleep until 5am when the nurse told her it was time to shower. After that they prepped her arm with a landing strip of IV ports. Looked painful but she didn't say aything other than her hand felt numb.

At 7:15am the orderly came to wheel her down to surgery. Again she was excited to get the operation over with. I took some pictures at her request. She wanted to see everything afterwards. She mentioned how peaceful she felt about this surgery and about the doctors. She fussed with her blue cap to get it over her ears. She reminds me so much of Grandma Pace.