I have a moment

I have a moment to make a blog post because Anna Grace is finally sleeping.  It is the first time she has slept since surgery that it hasn't been forced sleep due to morphine and versed.  For the last two days Anna Grace has experienced tachycardia which means her heart rate is super high.  It wasn't just episodes of high heart rate it just got to 190 and stayed there.  The doctors were puzzled.  The did two echos, two chest X-rays, two EKGs and everything looked fine.  They thought maybe infection might be the cause but she wasn't running a high fever so they cultured blood.  All the while AG is saying over and over again non stop "I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared".   For the last two days almost constantly.

We had a few heated discussions with the staff and finally last night dr Bradley came in and we talked about what he thought might be the cause.  Afterd a lengthy discussion we decided to start her on an anxiety medication called Ativan for the next 24 hours to see if it brought her heart rate down.  He said he didn't think anxiety would make it that high and they had never had a patient experience anxiety severe enough to warrant a continued -95 heart rate butt it was a first step in trying to figure out the cause.  She has been on the medication now for about 16 hours and her heart rate has been in the 129's.  She has still gotten scared and upset but we have been able to console her.  She was even able to go to the playroom this morning for an hour.  They never let ICUs kids go to the playroom but given her severe anxiety they thought it would do her good and it did.

So today everyone agrees it was caused from anxiety.  We don't plan on staying on Ativan forever but while in the hospital I think we will keep it on board.

She is still having a high chest tube output.  She has three chest tubes in right now and they can't be removed until the drainage stops.  Please pray pray pray pray for it to stop soon.  They are painful and scary.

The doc said they would not normally send a child to the floor with the amount of chest tube drainage she is having but given here severe anxiety they feel she will do better there.  So the plan is as soon as a bed becomes available on 8d they will send us to the floor.  That doesn't mean she is close to being ready for home but we are all hoping it will be less scary for her than the icy.

So, please continue to pray for her anxiety, for her to sleep well, for her to eat. Poop, and for the chest tube drainage to stop.

Brian is going to try to sleep tonight somim pulling the all nighter tonight.  So.... Pray for me too,

Zachary has been handling everything great.  He has made friends withbthe entire staff at the hospital playroom and they live him.  Still zero anxiety or questions from him about all the very sick kids he sees in the playroom.  That is a huge praise.  He said today he never wants to leave..... Sorry buddy.... But we aren't staying any longer than we have to,