A good weekend

So overall it's been a great weekend.

It started Saturday morning when we made the first visit of the day to see Martha Grace and we're greeted by a very cheery Kate (Cardiac Nurse Specialist) who told us Martha had been a very good girl all night and had drained a whole load of fluid. You could see it in her face. The puffiness was almost gone. She was starting to look a lot more like herself (pre-surgery)

So it was decided that at 11am they would begin the procedure of closing her chest.

We had also organised for Osh & Isabella to join us in London for the day. We decided we would go to the

station to meet them as I knew i wouldn't be able to just sit quietly and wait at the hospital.

I started crying as soon as I saw them walking through the crowds towards us. Osh ran towards me and we hugged for ages, I couldn't stop.giving him kisses. Isabella was stunned, she kept looking from me to Mark as if she couldn't understand why we were there.

As the chest closure would take almost 3hrs we took the kids for lunch first. We also gave them the gifts Martha Grace had very kindly bought them (Lego for Osh, a Dolly and a Cath Kidston bag for Isabella) Osh had been dying to give me and Mark the Teddy that he and Isabella had bought their new Little Sister, I swear the Teddy is bigger than Martha and it won't fit in her cot so it sits on the bedside table.

We went to see Martha when they'd finally finished sewing her up and decided that it was safe to bring Osh & Isabella in to the ward to meet their new Baby Sister.

I had worried that Osh would get scared by all the machines around her or the tubes coming in and out of her - but he was brilliant. Of course we had already warned him about the ventilation tubes but you never know how kids will react. But he took it all in his stride, he asked lots of questions and said Martha was cute. Isabella was carried by Mark so she could see in to the cot, but once she realised she wasn't allowed to climb in with her she quickly lost interest and we had to take her out. I don't think she even saw the machines or tubes.

Waving goodbye to them at the.station was awful, Osh was crying which made me cry which made.Isabella cry. I just wish I was able to be there for my kids - but at the.moment I'm not there for any of them. I felt like the worst Mammi in the world.

Sunday was a better day. After the morning ward round it was decided they would remove her chest drain, PD line and pacing wires that day. We had been warned that once her chest was closed we would see her come on in leaps and bounds.

And it's happening.

The chest drain is gone, the PD line is out, the pacing wires aren't there.

She's off the morphine, adrenaline and clonodine. The only drug she is on now is one for her heart and paracetamol.

Then during the afternoon ward round on Sunday the Doctor said he would prefer to have Martha off the ventilator that day.

I was not expecting this at all. She only had her chest closed the day before and now they thought she was safe to be breathing by herself. I wasn't ready for such a big step.

But it was decided that after the evening handover and ward round she would be extubated.

We came in to wish Martha a good night. I noticed the light was off in her bay. As I walked around to her bed I spotted a de-fibrillator on her bedside table. I was almost sick - what the hell had happened??

Protocol!!!! The lovely Petra explained that it's a piece of equipment they have to have ln standby when they extubate and promised it hadn't been used.

She is now on a little bit of CPAP so she doesn't get too tired and waste too many calories breathing herself.

Even better than that we get to start dressing her now she doesn't have so many wires coming coming out of her.

From being in despair at going nowhere for nearly 4 days to achieving so much in 2 days - Martha Grace is finally heading in the right direction.

GM 

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