Dr. Atwood's nurse Candy

Dr. Atwood's nurse Candy came by and we had the best 15 minutes yet. She showed me how to sit Jenna up and how to rub her back and make her feel better. She also gave Jenna her first look at her new self. The skin looked really good with a little bit of bruising but not much. The drains really help with that. She said they were really pleased with the incisions and the skin from the back looked great.

She also gave us good direction on what the medication schedule will be and when she can have all the stuff taken out. She was really helpful and I'm not covering a tenth of what we went over but we felt good when she left.

Dr. Cross/Update

Dr. Cross came by at 6AM. We were awake at the time so he came in because Jenna had slept for about 2 hours and woke up in quite a bit of pain. I told her from now on when she's sleeping I'll hit the button for her every hour so she won't get behind. Cross came in and looked at her chest and said everything looks good. He said he's concerned but not worried about her blood pressure as long as we are watching it. She can come off the oxygen after she eats a hot breakfast and wakes up a little bit. He also wants the catheter out and have her up by midmorning standing a little and sitting in a chair. He had the nurse bring Jenna a breathing apparatus to have her start breathing deeper. Then he was off.

We went to sleep then. The anesthesiologist came by at some point and asked how she was doing. I heard her murmur "Fine" and I went to sit up and when I looked up he was gone. Guess he was in a hurry :)

Our first nurse we had last night came by to say 'Hi' but unfortunately she's not our nurse today. That's too bad. Her name was Leslie and she was really good. Jenna had chicken broth for breakfast that made her make a face worse than anything so far. The coffee made it better though. She also got her contacts in place so that makes her happy also.

Lol, bad moderator

After the last big post I realized I hadn't checked to see if any comments needed moderation. I usually get an email and then I realized I hadn't checked my email today. Wow, I don't think I've had a day I didn't check e-mail in...I have no idea. It has to be at least a couple of years. I'll go a little while without checking my personal email but work I check constantly.

Anyways, there were some comments that needed to be approved.

Thanks again for loving my wife!!!

So far so...okay

We've had a fair night. Jenna rests intermittently. With everything attached to her I think it would take a sledgehammer of sedation to get her to sleep for large periods of time. I got brownie points for making her laugh earlier (I told her with all the tubing she has she could open a plumbing supply store) but I lost them when that hurt her chest.

She's still on oxygen not because of her sat levels but as a precaution for her blood pressure. Her blood pressure has become the bane of her night. She has an automatic cuff on her right arm that takes it every 30 min. It was to come off at midnight and then they would manually do it every so often. However (in the tone of Stephen A. Smith for the sports fans), her blood pressure dropped to 80/45 so they've decided to wait until morning when the powers that be show up to take her off the oxygen. Its just a bad cycle. The oxygen makes her nose itch so she scratches it with her hand making the pulse ox misread and alarms go off. Its funny that with the 7 tubes that are physically coming out of her body its the the oxygen line that is simply on her face that is driving her nuts.

I guess I haven't told you about the various tubes and stuff she has on. I'll try to paint the picture. She has 4 drains coming out of her chest cavity (2 in front and 2 in back) that have about 3 feet of line and a bulb on each end. These are drained by the nurses every 3-4 hours (3 times so far). She has a catheter in her bladder. She has the oxygen line and the pulse ox and the blood pressure cuff on. She also has an ON-Q pain medication pump. Oops almost forgot the IV. She has her narcotic self pump going into that. That's it for tubes. For me the most uncomfortable looking thing is the air compression hose on her legs. She has support stockings on and then over that she has what look like full length leg splints. Each one has 4 hoses coming out of it going to a pump under the bed. Every 5 seconds or so the pump fills them up full of air and then lets them deflate. This is to prevent an embolism or blood clot. I really think that's it for everything attached to her.

I know there are some survivors checking in on here so I'll give you her outputs on her drains. Drains 2, 3, and 4 are each outputting 20-30cc's. Drain 1 though hasn't put out much at all. it hasn't put out more than 3 cc so far. The nurse isn't worried because there isn't a clog in the line outside of her body and there is some output so I guess that site just isn't having fluid/blood buildup. If you want any specific information, register on the site and ask in the comments. If you are a new member to the site then your post will have wait until I approve you in the admin area before the comments are published. I require approval of memberships to prevent the spambots that lurk around the internet.

Resting peacefully

Okay the past few hours have been a whirlwind. Jenna's in the room and stable. She's doing really well on the oxygen with her sats at 96 and up. She really wants the oxygen off but they're gonna wait until about midnight to start weening her off. Her pulse rate has also come down to a normal level. It was hovering in the 110-115 range for a bit but she's chilled out at a cool 80 now. She's starting to get a little bit of color back into her face. Her hands and arms still look like Val Kilmer in Tombstone but they're getting better. The swelling in her face is also going down. Her eyelids were pretty puffy but the right one is pretty much back to normal now.

She's drifting in and out of sleep and we talk when she's awake. I relived the day for her and read her the blog entries. I read her what everyone wrote on her visitor sheet. I told her about Noah's day and I went through the list of everyone I talked to and what they were doing. She's resting now with a prayer shawl made by a group at Jeff and Michelle's church. The women crocheted (sp?) the shawl in pink and prayed for Jenna while they made it. It's really awesome. In fact everyone's been awesome. From the bagels this morning to the crackers to the chips to the Dr. Pepper (God Bless You) to the crossword puzzles, to the trips to the Post Office, to the trip to the pharmacy, etc. You have all been more than I could have ever dreamed. My wife is an amazing woman and it is only fitting that the people she loves would be equally amazing. Well...maybe not equally with her but you're pretty close :)
Jenna sleeping

Vici came out

Vici came out to tell me Jenna was waking up slightly. I'm assuming Dr. Atwood sent her out since he knew I was nervous. She said Jenna's blood pressure did get pretty low a couple of times but otherwise she did good. She said they had a laugh in the OR when they rolled Jenna for the first time. She said they are used to 'much larger people.' There are a lot of people popping by so I'll be more in depth later.

Met with Atwood

Dr. Atwood met me in the Consultation Room and said Jenna was almost to recovery. He said she did well and was stable throughout the operation. She lost very little blood in his part so he doesn't think she'll need any blood. She thinks the end result is going to be 'fantastic.' He is such a remarkable man and was very understanding when I got emotional.

Anyways I'll let you know when she gets to her room.

Starting the front

I think it took a little longer than anticipated in getting the blood and stuff stable. They have just started the actual procedures on the front. They went ahead and moved her to her hospital bed so she won't have to transition when they get to her room.

I asked about her vitals and she said everything was fine. Her blood loss has been about normal so they haven't had to give her any blood yet. Keep praying for things to keep going smoothly especially the whole coming out of anesthesia thing.

From table waiting to Salvation Army guy

First I felt like I was waiting for a table, but now I feel like the Salvation Army guy asking for donations. Last night I had the idea for Jenna to use some of the Susan G. Komen scrapbook paper to do a visitor page like she did when Noah was born. Then I had the idea to make a sign to make sure people knew to sign in (and my mother says I don't learn from my mistakes). Then I had the idea to have people donate money to the Susan G. Komen foundation when they come to visit. So all of that grew into making signs last night, going to the store and getting a clear jug, and then putting it all together. So here's my perch in the corner with all the necessities: Dr. Pepper, Blue Diamond Almonds, the visitor sheet, and the donation bucket. Oops almost forgot my restaurant pager.
Chad in corner