6:30 AM: Madison was sedated throughout the night. The ICU nurse is awesome and each time Madison would fidget just a bit, she was on top of it and gave her a goose of the happy juice. They anticipate waking her from the twilight sleep sometime today or perhaps this evening.
11:50 AM: As per usual post-Op, there's been a flurry of doctors in today. The plastic surgeon checked her 'flap' (patch), and said it looks perfect adding that's imperative there's a sustained blood flow to the patch. There's a machine that monitors that and things look good. It's imperative that she moves her head as little as possible for the next ~3 days, so for now they're keeping her sedated, a twilight. Encouraged to speak to her only after the they poke and prod when she's awakened by a doctor or nurse, she doesn't remember knowing surgery went "perfect", so we tell her that again, she nods 'yes', then drifts off.
Next step: bring her out of twilight sleep and start a pain med drip (constant trickle), with a pain pump she can goose herself with.
4:30 PM: Sedation was stopped at 3 PM. Madi is awake, currently trying to find that magic balance of pain meds, the thin line between intense pain and not needing assistance breathing.
5:20 PM: She has been communicating with the white board. Funny, early on before they removed the sedation today, she hadn't yet opened her eyes since yesterday morning in pre-op. With them closed this afternoon and heavily sedated, I see her hand do the "hey waitress" (wave when you want a check... Madi wanting to write on the white board). She scribbled, I told her I couldn't read it. Again. One eye opened, first time in 18 hours. I think it was the stink-eye. Yep, just like last June (link).
Next step: Remove assisting breathing contraption from her trach, perhaps tonight or tomorrow morning.
This is likely the last post of the day. I can see by the number of hits that people are following. Thank you for your love and concern, we are blessed to have so many loving friends, caring colleagues, and family members engaged.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We'll update this page as there are milestones, or at minimum morning, noon, and night while Madi is in ICU. Given some of the questions we asked to date, I'll answer the more common here... FAQs of sorts.
11:50 AM: As per usual post-Op, there's been a flurry of doctors in today. The plastic surgeon checked her 'flap' (patch), and said it looks perfect adding that's imperative there's a sustained blood flow to the patch. There's a machine that monitors that and things look good. It's imperative that she moves her head as little as possible for the next ~3 days, so for now they're keeping her sedated, a twilight. Encouraged to speak to her only after the they poke and prod when she's awakened by a doctor or nurse, she doesn't remember knowing surgery went "perfect", so we tell her that again, she nods 'yes', then drifts off.
Next step: bring her out of twilight sleep and start a pain med drip (constant trickle), with a pain pump she can goose herself with.
4:30 PM: Sedation was stopped at 3 PM. Madi is awake, currently trying to find that magic balance of pain meds, the thin line between intense pain and not needing assistance breathing.
5:20 PM: She has been communicating with the white board. Funny, early on before they removed the sedation today, she hadn't yet opened her eyes since yesterday morning in pre-op. With them closed this afternoon and heavily sedated, I see her hand do the "hey waitress" (wave when you want a check... Madi wanting to write on the white board). She scribbled, I told her I couldn't read it. Again. One eye opened, first time in 18 hours. I think it was the stink-eye. Yep, just like last June (link).
Next step: Remove assisting breathing contraption from her trach, perhaps tonight or tomorrow morning.
This is likely the last post of the day. I can see by the number of hits that people are following. Thank you for your love and concern, we are blessed to have so many loving friends, caring colleagues, and family members engaged.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We'll update this page as there are milestones, or at minimum morning, noon, and night while Madi is in ICU. Given some of the questions we asked to date, I'll answer the more common here... FAQs of sorts.
- These surgeries were not insignificant. Picture for example the doctor saying "open your mouth and say AHHH". In Madison's case, you could see the titanium plate at the top of her C2 vertebra (through the hole in her throat ).
- Removing the plate and patching her throat required another incision across her neck, from Adams apple curved up towards her right ear. She also has a cast on her left arm to protect the area from where the patch was taken, with an incision from wrist to elbow.
- Sorry, no flowers allowed in ICU, thanks to those who asked. You can mail get-well cards to mom or dad, and we'll bring those in
- A number of people asked if they can visit. Sorry, none allowed in ICU. We'll play it by ear next week but she may not be up for it for a bit.
