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surgery. She filled that syringe, and another, and another and another. She called to other nurses, and they called the rest of the nurses, out of Shawn's pluera, the nurse drained over 200 ml of fluid, something she had never seen before. When she was done, there was a stack of syringes filled with fluid that I looked at with wonder. Where did that fluid come from, and if it were in his chest cavity, wasn't everything else squished? I later learned, the answer is yes. The day after the surgery we celebrated my mom's birthday - April 5th- with a birthday cake from the Three Lions bakery located in the atrium area of the hospital. Sadly, daddy had to fly home to Alaska before Shawn was discharged from the PICU, he had a job on the northslope that he had to get to. Unfortunately, bills still have to be paid, whether your child is recovering from open heart surgery or not. We had hoped that we would be flying home right after him - how wrong we were. Fortunately for me, my parents stayed. We were only in the PICU a short while, about 5 days, however, Shawn's pleural effusions persisted. When it became apparent that they wouldn't 'dry up' - the doctors ordered Shawn to be on a HIGH protein, extremely LOW fat diet. The color of Shawn's fluid changed from bloody looking to a pale yellow, more watery fluid, which is normal. However, if Shawn had eaten fat, there would be globs of fat in the fluid - who knew? Two weeks after the Fontan, my parents flew home to Alaska, so it was just Shawn and I. About this time, Shawn was sent back to the operating room for an extensive cath - to look for collaterals, and to see the function of his heart from the inside. Shawn's heart function was great, the opertation - the Fontan - perfect. So, what was with the pleural effusions? No one knew. They actually went into his pleural cavity and sealed it off - hoping that this would put an end to it. (It didn't) The day of this surgery was the worst, I was alone with Shawn in pre-op, and so alone when they took him into the OR, probably the lonliest feeling I have ever had. We only stayed in the PICU for two days after this surgery. Then we were back on the floor. Once on the floor, the nurses, along with Mary Rummel, a true godsend, began to teach me the finer art of aspirating (draining) Shawn's pleural catheters (chest tubes). I learned how to set up the sterile field, drain the catheters (tubes) clean the sight, change the dressings, etc. - they were preparing to send us home, putting me in charge of this twice daily ordeal. The hope was, that once Shawn was home and back in his enviornment, that he would 'dry up' - it was worth a shot, and we were all for it. We packed our things, said good-bye to everyone in the hospital: the nurses, the doctors, the surgeons, and everyone in our "home away from home" Ronald McDonald house which I was very emotional about because I thought I would never be back. This was Shawn's 'completion' surgery, we were supposed to be done with surgeries, until the day came that he would need his transplant, and at that time, we were planning on going to Stanford, California, I thought that we were done with Portland, Oregon. I was given HUGE bags of medical supplies, which I carried on the plane, when questioned by security at the Portland airport, instead of going into a long explination, I told Shawn to show them his tubes, once he lifted his shirt, a look of horror came over the security guards face and then sympathy - we were then, so kindly, ushered through security. |
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