We're home again

We have successfully made it home. It was a pretty uneventful night except for Carter's heart rate dropping dramatically. It does this at home and we have called the cardiologist about it but no one can seem to tell us what a "normal heart rate" would be for him and so we haven't really worried about it. The lowest it got last night was 62 but typically at night he hangs out in the 80's-90's. Well, it bothered them enough last night that they ordered a 12 lead EKG and then sent us home with a Holter monitor - basically another toy to play with for Carter. It is a 4 lead EKG machine to watch heart function. He wears it for 24 hours and then we mail it back to PCMC and they look at what his heart does. If everything looks good it just means that Carter knows how to make his heart relax at night that he can slow it way down and rest comfortably. If something else is going on....we will be getting a call from his cardiologist.

I watched the surgeon do the dressing change this morning and learned how to pull out the gauze, and repack the wound. It looks really gross, but I am going to do it anyway. I always have wanted to be a nurse...so I figure I might as well add this to my list of nursing capabilities. Alan is going to have to help hold Carter down while I do it - I hope he doesn't faint - he can't even pull out a kids tooth!!! Hee!Hee! He is pretty faint when it comes to stuff like this - I am the one who has to be strong.

And when we had been home a few hours I got a call from Annie the Nurse Practioner for Cardiothoracic Surgery...which wasn't exactly a good sign. She asked how all was going and I said fine. Then she mentioned that Carter's lab culture came back from surgery. Dr. Burch sent in a sample to see if anything would grow out from the sample he got from inside Carter's body. He grew out Staphylococcus - which we knew he had but what is bothersome is that this was inside his body as opposed to just a superficial infection on the skin. After talking to the infection disease doctors they decided to double his antibiotics and continue to let it grow to check the susceptibility of the strain. This basically means that some forms of this infection are resistant to some antibiotics and if this is the case in Carter's condition they will have to give him much stronger anitbiotics. So again we wait to find out what we are doing next. Again she warned us that if the site turns red, has a lot of drainage, or he develops a fever we are to call immediately as this could turn from bad to worse very quickly. We will pray that nothing happens along those lines. I think we have had enough fun for the week.....

Here are some pictures from our stay....

Cute pajamas - great exam table paper - makes fun noises and you can rip it!!
Doesn't that smile just kill you - he had no idea what was coming!!

How come it is taking so long to go into surgery....and why won't anyone feed me? I think I'll just take a nap....

All done - I woke up before I made it out of the operating room and was ready to eat. After two bottles of pedialyte and some apple juice it was time for another nap. Of course I immediately rolled over and slept right on my new incision but it didn't bother me (but it did bother my parents)

Going to sleep for the night...my mom made me roll over and sleep on my back...which was better for the nurses to do vitals during the night.