View from the Parking Garage

Another weekend at the hospital. The bad news is that Gwyneth was acting up in the tight confines of the Cleveland Clinic step-down unit but the good news is that Liliana continues to look good. She pulled out her core pack at 4 am Saturday morning so they put another one in along with an NG tube to give her meds. Later on, X-ray confirmed that her new core pack was in the correct place. I took a few pictures on the way home since there was a pretty neat sunset.

Snow, snow and more snow...

It's looking like another terrific winter for snow here in Cleveland. We were affected by the big winter blast that came across the country yesterday. Even with my 4WD vehicle, I had time getting up our driveway when I got home from work. I wanted to keep my car off the street which still hadn't been plowed.

Kim and I decided to change plans for visiting the Cinic at the last minute. She stayed there until the roads were cleared and I went home and cleared the driveway after work and then picked up Gwyneth from the sitter's. Good thing I did since Kim's van would have never made it very far to the deep and packed snow. See more photos here.

Out of the ICU

Today, Lily was transferred from the ICU to the step-down unit. The next goal will be to get her off her core pack and back on an NG tube. The core pack goes directly into her small intestine whereas the NG tube goes to the stomach. There are several reasons why we don't want Lily going home with a core pack. Hopefully, this means that Liliana will be home very, very soon and this long road of surgeries will be over.

Lily is off the Vent!

The staff at the PICU finally extabated Lily for the third time last night. It is the first time she is breathing without a ventilator for quite awhile. The last time she was intubated it was because of her respiratory distress that put her back in the ICU and on the road to a third surgery. Shortly after being extabated, Lily had a temperature that later subsided. Her cardiologist and everyone said she looks good but she still has a long road ahead. She has to be transitioned to other medications than the ones she is on now and her feeds have to slowly be increased.

In other news, Lily's grandfather underwent a heart catheterization and 3 blockages were found and treated. Her grandmother had a similiar procedure just about a month ago.

ICU Photos

I've just posted many photos that I've taken at the ICU over the past few weeks. See them on Flickr.

Pneumonia Again

Lily has tested positive for another bacterial infection in her lungs. She had been having fevers off and on but this is the first time a culture has come back positive. Now it will be at least 7-10 days on antibiotics before she can be extabated. All things considered, they say she looks pretty good otherwise. This is becoming like the movie Groundhog Day.

I worked from home today so I could let a repairman from the water department replace our water meter. In a fog when I left, I cut the corner a bit too close and got the little Yaris rental car stuck. I started digging the car out but it wouldn't budge. Luckily someone drove by and stopped and gave me a push. I really need my car back for this weather!

Baffling

Today Liliana's stats are back to normal. Yesterday, her heart rate was high and she was very irritable all day. Last night and today she has been fine and they have been able to wean down the vent. They are aiming for extabating her tomorrow if the weaning is successful. They will also do another echo on her tomorrow. We are hoping that Liliana was just having a bad day or they just got a bad echo on her. She was moving around quite a bit and they had to repeat it yesterday. It's also possible that other things can cause the leak to seem worse than it is.

Dr. Mummtaz said that Lily's behavior of tolerating the surgery and then having problems weeks later is baffling to them. That is not something you want to hear from a doctor. He also said that her heart function continues to be good and they still want to do everything they can before they even consider putting in a replacement valve.

Will This Ever End?

We got some bad news today. Lily's last echo now shows worsening leakage in her mitral valve. It has gone from mild to moderate but it is not in the severe category where it was before her surgery. Now we have to worry about that again as well as her not tolerating her feeds and the mold that may still be in her system. The cardiologist said that he doesn't want to go just by one echo before making a decision and there are other options. Lily could go home with a tracheotomy to help her breath if necessary. The worst case scenario would be surgery number four to replace her mitral valve with an artificial one. At this point, there are more things that need to happen before any decisions can be made. They are going to start by weaning her off the ventillator and see how far that takes her.

Some good news is that her blood cultures are still negative. They also took a stool sample to see if she has c-difficil bacteria but that turned up negative as well.

Kim and I are both spent and there is no end in sight to Lily's ICU stay at this time.

Holding Liliana for the First Time In Weeks

Both Kim and I got to hold Lily for the first time in weeks this evening and she seemed much happier after that experience. We thought that we would not be able to hold her as long as she had the ventilator in but the said that was not the case. Lily is still spiking fevers but her cultures have been negative. Her belly is also distented but an x-ray showed that it is full of air. According to Lily's nurse today, morphine and some of the other drugs that she is on can hamper the digestive tract but this should all go back to normal when she is off of the drugs. They also were able to come down a bit on the ventilator today Lily is making small steps and, hopefully, we won't have any more major setbacks.

I just got some of the bill from Lily's 2 month stay and they are pretty staggering. The running total is up to $230,000 for 11/4 to 12/24/08. Thank God we have health insurance but I still cannot figure out exactly how much of that we will owe. The added bummer with Lily still being in the hospital at the beginning of the year is that we will have to pay the entire deductible again for this year.