Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Morning - Day 2

Jessica woke up bright and early this morning - 6:00am! Not so great considering we didn't get to sleep until 2:00am. Miss Jess had an emotional time when it was time to go to sleep so I climbed into bed with her as best as I could and helped calm her down. Poor kiddo just wants to feel better and go home.

Jess had blood drawn through her IV and then got her Procainamide. We are waiting for the breakfast trays and then hopefully we can have a nap. Hey, I can dream, can't I? (even if it is just daydreaming)

Yesterday Jessica would have up to 30 PVCs per minute and rarely a minute would go by with no PVCs. She would go into trigeminy (every third beat is a PVC) quite often and one time I saw that she had two PVCs in a row. She could have had more of the couplets but I didn't look at the alarm every time it went off since it was going off frequently. They had the alarm set to go off if she had more than 5 PVCs/minute. Fortunately the nurse turned the alams off during the night so that we could get some sleep. The nurse told me this morning that Jessica didn't go into trigenimy after she fell asleep at all! This is a good thing although she didn't seem to have PVCs while sleeping either time that she had the holter monitors on.

UPDATE 9:00AM:
We have eaten breakfast and the new nurse and attending doctors have been in to visit. So far Jessica has had NO PVCs!!!!!!! They said that usually these meds don't work this fast but apparently this one seems to be working for Miss Jess!!! I hate to get my hopes up but she is really doing well so far today. Of course when Karl and I talked to the electrophysiologist PC yesterday, we discussed the possibility of the meds causing more arrhythmias as well as sending her into v-tach. We discussed her DNR orders and they have it on the charts. The other doctors were told about the DNR orders and the PICU docs briefly discussed them with me last night. Everyone is so good to us here and they all understand that the DNR is Jessica's wish. She said several times that the tubes that are hanging on the PICU bed tower scared her. The nurse, doctor and I reassured her several times that those are in every PICU room and that they knew not to use them for her.

Jessica is munching on ice and using her new markers to draw pictures. (I bought her a set of 50 markers that are in a little tower container for her hospital stay). I'm about to fall asleep so maybe I can grab a few zzzzzzzz's while she watches TV and draws.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I feel so lost without my email addresses! Again, if you belong to a heart support group that I am unable to update, please pass this message along.

3 comments:

Awesome Mom said...

I hope you get a nap! I know how insane it is to try and sleep in the PICU. I always need a few days to catch up on all the sleep I miss.

Rene said...

I just read this on PDHeart! I didn't breath the entire time I was reading the page! I am so thrilled that the meds are working for her. I pray that they continue to do so and she gets some relief. Get some rest, both of you! You are in my heart and in my prayers.

Love,
Rene Dereksen

Ruth said...

Hey Nancy!

I'm glad to hear that the meds seem to be helping!! I hope this winds up quickly and you all get to go home soon!