Ups and Downs of Recovery

Abby was moved about 1pm yesterday from the CICU to the step-down unit which basically means that she no longer needs the 1 to 1 care.  Obviously we were thrilled that she didn't need the care, but the first quite a few hours weren't real thrilled with the lack of care either.  We'd gone from such exceptional care, someone always there telling you what was going on, what their goals were etc to pretty much nothing.  We knew that we needed to get her up and out of bed, but that's not such an easy thing when a child has just had open heart surgery and we kind of felt like we had been dumped and didn't have the support we had in the CICU.  We obviously were worried that we could hurt her, but thanks to my friend, Molly (thanks, Molly) she convinced us that we can't really hurt her. Abby was refusing to take any medicine, and we basically had to hold her down to give it to her, she wouldn't drink and we didn't know if she should be eating or if it was ok that she not.  Finally we asked and were told it was ok that she not eat but that the sooner she was up the better, finally someone came in to help us get her up and get her to the bathroom, but she was getting herself so worked up she got sick a little bit.  So not only was she scared to get up, but she's also never thrown-up either so that had her pretty upset.  She went back to bed and we decided not to push it any more for the day because she was getting REALLY mad at us - i've never heard "I hate you, you're mean" so many times in my life!   Her pain seemed to be in her back which was from laying around and we couldn't convince her that if she got up it would be better so we figured tomorrows a new day and maybe we'll get more help.

Later last night we made a call to my parents so she could talk with them and with Logan and Logan answered the phone - she had the hugest smile on her face when she heard his voice, it made me cry!  Talking to them really cheered her up.  She had a pretty quiet night and slept fairly well.

Thankfully, this morning she seemed to be doing a lot better, she ate breakfast, was drinking and this awesome therapist came in and was the first person that Abby didn't scowl at!  She worked on movement of her legs and arms and basically made her sit up, put her feet over the edge of the bed and walk to Dad in the chair and she did it!  She's been sitting in the chair every since!  We were just having such a hard time reasoning with her that we've realized we just need to make her do it and know that it will be ok!

Our goal for this afternoon is to get her walking around the room and hope that a visit from Ama and Papa and Logan will help make that happen.  She's been crying a lot because she wants to go home and because she misses Logan.

The cardiologist came in the room a little earlier and says that if she stays as good as she is today we will be going home tomorrow!  Obviously we know she'll recover much quicker at home, but its also a bit scary.  Pat's pretty tough with her if need be because she can be a stubborn little thing and if she doesn't want to do something, she's not doing it.  He finally told her that if she doesn't get out of bed and walk, she's never going to leave - nice one Dad, that's a little harsh! 

A co-worker friend of mine had given her a school book that had a sticker chart in it so we figured out some goals that we could work on today and that she would get a sticker each time she did one of them and once she got 5 stickers she would get a prize.  We put on there:  eat breakfast, sit up in bed, move to the chair, go potty and walk around the room - so far she has 3 stickers and  I have a feeling we are going to be getting a guinea pig in the very near future - he already has a name "Fluffy".

So, hopefully my next update will be that we're coming home!  Thank you again to everyone for all of your love and support and your prayers.