Day #6 in ICU and Surgery #3

I'm new to keeping a blog, so forgive the issues with the font sizes. Also, I'm posting a new picture of Meghan every day. If you have a picture of her you'd like me to use, feel free to send it to laura_lambert@bellsouth.net. I told her I'd start with the good ones and eventually have to use the bad ones...to give her incentive to get better faster. Thanks for reading. The comments cheer her up a lot. - Mom

8:45 am - She's sleeping soundly and appears to be dreaming. I'm waiting to ask the nurse how her night was.

9:15 am - Dr. W (orthopedic surgeon) came in at 8:00 and had her sign consent and explained her surgery today. For some reason, he tore apart her splint/cast on her arm so now she's really uncomfortable and feels like she can't move without injuring her arm. Her heart rate is down in the low 100s today - an improvement over yesterday. But it looks like her blood pressure may be up. Occupational therapist came to see her about her arm. Given the condition of her cast and the ambiguity of the dr's orders, she called him for clarification. He confirmed there's to be no OT until the elbow is fixed and he wants her doing weight bearing PT on the rest of her limbs. Mom will clarify this when she speaks to him after the surgery. We can't figure out how she'll do anything with her right leg at this point. Meghan's feeling anxious, grumpy and itchy. We've had yet another visit from the vascular team to remind us that Meghan's IVC filter needs to come out. We think that is the 5th person from that group to come tell us that. I think we got the message ;-).

The OT confused Meghan when she asked about the wound on her arm. Meghan realized that she didn't have a wound when she came into the hospital. Mom asked her if she wanted more details about what happened and she did. Mom explained that it was similar to hearing about people having internal injuries in an accident....the force of the wreck caused internal injury to her arm and leg and all of that injured tissue has to come off and heal.

11:40 am - The did the echo cardiogram/ultrasound of her heart. Her blood pressure is fine. The cuff was in the wrong place on her leg.

2:45 pm - still waiting to go to surgery. She's slept fitfully most of the day so far. She's sitting up checking her Facebook and email to pass the time. We found that she can move her right leg back and forth with minimal pain when we noticed her leg looked like it was about to slide off the side of the bed.

5:45 pm - Meghan just went to pre-op. Mom is waiting in surgical waiting. Will post updates as they come. Her surgery will be to irrigate and debride her leg and arm wound. The plastic surgeon will also be there to assess her need for skin grafts. They will also re-splint her arm.

Before they wheeled her down, Meghan was playing with the finger sensor and the mobile monitor. If she raised her finger, it beeped faster. If she lowered it, it beeped slower. We found that pretty funny. And, the guy transporting her had trouble with the cables and tubes and had to keep leaving the room to get stuff. I told her they were really testing our patience and then we realized that was a really good pun and had a good laugh. She was SO ready to get the show on the road.

6:45 pm - The surgical nurse called to say that Meg's surgery has finally gotten under way.

9:00 pm - Surgery complete. Dr. W said things are looking very positive. She will need skin grafts and the plastic surgeon was there to get a good assessment of how things are healing after just a week. Dr. W plans to fix her elbow in two-three days (one more surgery). He is waiting for more of the swelling to go down. The plastic surgeon will take over treating her leg and arm wounds. Dr. W doesn't think she will have to have general anesthesia for the wound treatments going forward -- which means she may not need surgery on the wounds again. Her blood counts have been stable over the weekend. They will monitor things to see if she needs another blood transfusion this week. She will be in the hospital at least another two to three weeks and still has a long road ahead of her but, things do sound positive. Dr. W wants her to start getting up (bed to chair) and eventually walking with a knee brace. She will not be allowed to bend her right leg until the quad heals (up to 6 months). Mike and Mom are waiting in the ICU waiting room for her to return to her room so they can say good night to her.