Rollercoaster

I know that there are probably lots of people checking to see if I have updated yet.  I decided that I needed to update my blog tonight and let everyone know what is going on and get stuff down before I forget.

The last couple of days have been an emotional roller coaster at the Flitton household.  Monday I took Madison to Primary Children's to have pre-op work done.  She received a chest x-ray and then had to have blood drawn.  The phlebotomist that was doing her blood work had NO idea what she was doing.  They had to poke both hands, one of her veins in the middle of her arm (opposite side of her elbow), and her heel.  I felt so bad for her because the dug, and dug, and dug.  She was SCREAMING bloody-murder.  I have never heard her scream like that.  I then went to meet with the nurse practitioner so that she could do a physical.  I got to the desk to check in and was told that her surgery had been moved because they performed a heart transplant and were unable to do it on Tuesday.  I was a little upset to say the least.   We were told that they were going to try and schedule it for Friday, February 3rd and not to do anything until they called.  They never called so I decided to call them on Thursday to see if it was still on.  They informed me that it was and told me that I needed to take her down to have a second round of pre-op labs and her physical.  I had to go to work and Colt had the day off so he took her down and had her work done.  Everything looked great so the surgery was still on.

Friday, February 3rd we had to have Madison to the hospital by 6:00 am to prepare for surgery.  We got up and left the house about 5:15 am.  We went to same-day surgery and checked in.  They took us to a room where we put her scrubs on and prepared for surgery.

She knew what was going on because every time Colt or I put her down she would scream bloody-murder.  We then waited for the surgeon to come in and talk to us.  He came in and told us a bunch of statistics for problems that could happen (Good thing to tell a mom of a baby about ready to have heart surgery.) and used words too big for my vocabulary to describe the procedure and what he would do.  After he left we waited for the anesthesiologist to come and talk to us.  He was there shortly after the surgeon and told us some other statistics of what could happen and on his end and then showed us to where we were going.  At about 7:30, we walked down the hall, the surgeon scanned his badge to the operating area, looked at me and said, "I will take her from here."  He took her, she started to cry and say, "Da, da, da," and we walked down the hall to the waiting room.  I bald the whole way and so did Colt.  That was the hardest part...besides waiting.  We checked in at the waiting room so we could receive updates and decided to go get breakfast at the U of U cafeteria, much better than Primarys!  It is so hard to go from taking a baby with you everywhere to all of a sudden being back to just the two of us!  I hated it to say the least.  We then went back up to the waiting room.  Sheri came to help pass the time and then Colt's mom also came.  It was so nice to have people to talk to to help the time pass by.  We received a few updates to let us know what they were doing.  The let us know about 9:00 am that they had started the surgery and they would call later and inform us of how she did.  (We were told earlier that she would be in surgery for 3-5 hours.)  At about 1:00 pm they called to inform us that surgery just finished and that the surgeon would be coming up to let us know how it went.  Dr. Burch, Madison's surgeon, came and informed us that surgery went well and she was headed to the CICU.  After Dr. Burch came, Dr. Bateman, the anesthesiologist, came to let us know how she did with his portion.  He let us know that she is a fighter and VERY STUBBORN...I guess that means that she is my child because I am very stubborn.  He said he was very impressed with her and her willpower.  I am so thankful for that as well.  Dr. Burch told us that we would be able to see her in about 45 minutes but they would let us know when they were ready.  Well, it ended up being about an hour and a half before we got to see her.  I was SO anxious and couldn't wait.  About 2:15 or so we got to finally go and see her.  She looked better than I expected her to and I am also grateful for that.

She has 3 chest tubes, 1 breathing tube, an arterial line, an IV in her hand, an IV in her neck (a central line), pacemaker wires, and the normal wires that they get when they are in the hospital.  She is such a miracle and I can't believe how blessed I feel to be her mom.

We couldn't get her to wake up because she was so sleepy so they had to wait until 6:50 pm to extabate her, meaning take her breathing tube out, even though she was breathing on her own.

 She is a little unhappy because her throat is really sore and the anesthesia is starting to wear off.

At 6:00 am on Saturday, February 4th we received a call from the nurse to ask us about formula.  They were ready to start feeding her and she wasn't enjoying the Pedialyte. We told her what we used and she fed her.  I then called about 10:00 am to find out how things were going.  They informed me that they had taken 2 of the chest tubes out and she took the IV out of her right hand (which she still needed.)  They also took her off most of the medicine and she was only on a diarrhetic, an antibiotic, and lortab for pain.  They also couldn't keep her full...she was constantly wanting to eat.  The nurse said that they didn't have any spoons for infants and if I would bring down a spoon we would try to give her some solids.  Well, at 12:00 pm we gave her a thing of squash, half a thing of bananas, and an ounce of milk.  She then feel asleep for 4 hours.  When she woke up, she was hungry.  I then fed her a thing of squash, a thing of carrots, and 2 1/2-3 ounces of milk.  I think she is a better eater now!!!

You can see the huge difference from right after surgery.  She is a little swollen and itchy from the morphine but doing remarkably well. Plus, I got to hold her today!  That was the best feeling ever.

I can't believe how amazing Madison is.  She is a fighter!  She is our miracle baby and I am so glad she is mine.  The nurses and doctors are amazed and her and her drive to get better.  She wants all of her tubes gone and she is willing to do what she needs to get rid of them.  My mom came up and saw her today and said that she is going to call her M&M now, it stands for Miracle Madison or Madison the Miracle.

There have been multiple people tell us that we are way stronger than they would've ever been.  I don't think that Colt and I are any stronger than anyone else, we have just been given a miracle baby that has multiple issues and trials and we have an amazing Heavenly Father who is always there to help us.  He didn't give us a trial that we couldn't handle, He has helped us get through the trial we have been given.  My Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ are the reason I can get through this hard time in my life.  I am so thankful for Them in my life and the strength, courage, and ability to go on that They give me.  I know that there are people on the other side of the veil that are helping and have helped her through the last couple of days.  She is being watched over and protected and I know that she is still here because I need her!  I need her here to help me become a better person.  She teaches me patience, love, compassion, gratitude, and many other things that I may not otherwise experience.  At one point in my life, it was my brother, Hunter, that made me want to be a better person so that I could know him and live with him someday and now it is Madison that makes me and helps me to be a better person.  I know that she is one of our Heavenly Father's chosen daugthers and I am glad that I get to be her mom on this earth.