Finally....A Break

Finally, a break from all the bad news that we had been getting day after day.

When Emerson went down for her MRI, we went to lunch to get out for a bit, because there was nothing that we could do. In our situation, we are constantly expecting or waiting for a phone call. This feeling has not escaped. Literally, every night we go to sleep we pray we don’t get a phone call in the middle of the night. Because no phone calls means everything is under control. Like I said, this situation is a constant worry point.

Anyways, to her MRI....she did awesome, and they got her back to her room just fine and dandy. We just had to wait for the results. Now, they did an MRI on her brain and her heart. They figured if we have her down their already for a brain MRI, we should just check out the heart as well. And both came back with better answers than we had been getting. Her brain showed no signs of a stroke or seizure. That’s really good news. And her heart showed no scarring (which I guess is good), and no additional swelling. With how we left the hospital Thursday night, to getting this news on Friday...it was a world’s difference. Our doctor literally came into our room on Friday smiling to tell us the MRI results.

Doctor: “Well I have some good news.”
Me: “Don’t mess with me doc.” (Since Monday on receiving this heartbreaking news, to now Friday, this is literally the first medical person who has said anything about “good news”)

She was starting to level out with her vitals and blood, and they wanted to just maintain over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday she did really good. Last thing that we heard on Friday is that the surgeon team was going to talk over the weekend about any type of surgery they could do to alleviate pressure on the heart and get the breathing tube out. Really, the main concern right now is getting the breathing tube out, just because the longer it is in, the longer the chance of getting an infection from it. Also, when the breathing tube comes out, we can hold our baby girl again.  We dream of being able to hold our baby girl again.

How the PICU works is that the attending doctors work a week at the time. We loved the doctor we first had last week. Monday was a new attending, and we met her the first time during rounds Monday morning. I guess I should explain “rounds” as I have mentioned it a few times and a few might not know (it is crazy how much medical “stuff” we have learned after only a week). Rounds is when the attending doctor, and a few others depending on the circumstance, go room to room and discuss what is happening. The nurse will give the attending numbers, and the attending will tell us what is happening and what is going to happen. They usually round in the morning and at night.

Anyways, we met the new attending doctor at about noon on Monday. And we like her already as well. And she gives us more news to hang on to. Emerson’s numbers have been holding on so strong, that they want to slowly wean her off the ventilator machine. Basically, the heart medicine that they are giving her to get her heart pumping better will do all the work. But her other body systems have been looking good, and they think she can handle breathing on her own. They have already slowly lowered the ventilator, and she has been responding well. If this does happen, her breathing tube would come out towards the end of the week. As in a hospital, things can move slow medically; this race is a marathon, not a sprint.

Emerson has an echo planned for today sometime (October 2nd). At the very least, same would be good. Same would mean they can move onto their plan. We pray and we keep praying.