One week after heart surgery
Hannah is doing great…and we have further news/clarification about Charlie
7.50am
This time last week, we were waiting for Hannah to be given pre-meds and taken into theatre. We were watching “Back to the Future II” to pass the time and keep our minds off it all. We were all scared and worried.
This morning, Hannah woke up around 6.30am after a great night (She went straight off to sleep, in her favourite position, just before 10 and slept through nurse’s observations throughout the night, including blood pressure being taken! She struggled to get back to sleep for a little while after waking up to take her medication – she had pain in her ribs and shoulder, from the Pneumothorax I think – so took some paracetamol and watched TV for a bit, then went back to sleep and slept through the night!).
In fact, Hannah had a better night than I had…I suffered from a bit of gastric reflux and heartburn after last night’s Pizza Express dinner with Simon; and the fold-up bed didn’t do my back any favours.
I could have quite happily spent the entire night watching Hannah sleep though. She was so cosy and comfortable and sleeping so peacefully, without moaning in pain every time she moved. It was wonderful to see! 🙂
We had a proper morning cuddle in her bed today…We’d both missed the cuddles! She was in no pain and we lay snuggled up for ages, chatting and giggling about the weird dreams she had and what she wants to ask Mr Brawn if he comes to see her today. This was a fantastic start to the day. I’m still glowing and grinning with joy at the memory of it!
Having our first proper cuddle since the heart surgery 🙂
She’s now got washed and dressed by herself and looks great!
Lunchtime
Hannah and Charlie’s cardiologist wanted to see us with Charlie while we were here, to discuss the results of her last exercise tolerance test and talk about options.
We saw him this morning. Basically, Charlie’s heart rate can’t rise to where it should rise to for her age to meet the body’s increased demand for blood and oxygen when doing intense exercise. This is either because of the way her sinus node fires off electrical impulses, or the effect of the beta blocker, Sotalol, that she’s on (it’s to prevent further abnormal rhythms leading to a potential cardiac arrest like the one in 2010), or a combination of both.
This is not a problem, or dangerous. It just means that while she can, and should, continue to do aerobic exercise (treadmill, walking, swimming etc) and toning exercises (planking, other core muscle work, resistance equipment etc), there is a physical limit on what she can do. He said she’s more of a Range Rover than a Ferrari.
Charlie couldn’t stop laughing at the notion that he thought she may want to do more intense physical activity or even competitive sports some day!
He said that a pacemaker may resolve this, but that as we know, because of the surgery she had in 2001, she can’t have one fitted the traditional way as the vein access to the heart is closed off. So if she wanted one, it would have to be fitted via open heart surgery . She doesn’t want one, but knows the option is there if she changes her mind in future.
We then explained that, basically, she’s now getting to an age where she makes her own life and health decisions and manages her own lifestyle and life in general. This led to…
…The day’s comedy moment:
Hannah, without batting an eyelid, said “you won’t last very long then! “
Emotional moment of the day:
We’ve just deciphered with Hannah one of the things she was getting really frustrated about in intensive care, when she was frantically doing sign language nobody understood. She was signing “hugs” … she wanted a hug.
Guess who’s crying again….Hannah’s shaking her head at me being so soppy!
Other:
We were told Hannah could come outside, off the hospital grounds for a bit…For example to have diner with us tonight….and wouldn’t need to take the oxygen tank, either! Fantastic news! 🙂 She was really excited!
We couldn’t take her out for too long and she wouldn’t manage to walk very far yet, so we opted for Pizza Express just minutes away from the hospital. We had a great evening! 🙂 (See the photo at the start of this blog entry)
Overall, Hannah’s had a great day. We’ve caught up on past episodes of “Dragons’ Den” on BBC iPlayer, chatted and giggled lots…she was on top form mocking her Dad, as usual…Charlie and Hannah did the usual sisterly playful bickering and pretending they don’t care about each other…
The walk to Pizza Express tired her out, but didn’t stop her enjoying our time there and her meal. On the way back, she was very tired and very cold (she needed my cardigan and Simon’s fleece on top of her hoodie!), but got back to the ward and was still absolutely fine. Nice and pink throughout, too. She did go more or less straight to bed when we got back though. Hopefully she’ll have another great night’s sleep!
Tomorrow she’ll have another x-ray. Although she’s doing great, we’ve not seen an improvement in the volume she can breathe in during her breathing exercises. We’ll see what the x-ray shows! Fingers crossed.
Oh, and she had the stitches on the chest drain wounds taken out. The one that was oozing a little yesterday was gaping a bit so she has steri-strips on it to keep it closed. The main dressing over her main surgical wound has also been removed and she was able to have a proper shower and wash her hair today. She felt wonderful afterwards! And she’s been able to wear one of her normal underwired bras again. Slowly life is returning to normal for her. I’m amazed at how well she’s doing and how little pain she’s in…she is on minimal painkillers and not even regular doses anymore – only when she needs them. Incredible! I think if someone had cracked my chest open, my ribs & chest might hurt a bit more for a bit longer!
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