First night went well

Tiernan is continuing to do everything he needs to do right now. 
We are totally amazed at the way his body is responding to the MASSIVE surgery and long bypass times he underwent.   

Last night the big issue was his bleeding.  He was losing upwards of 100 ccs per hour which is way beyond what they would want.  It was a balancing act to give him the blood products he needed without causing issues with his blood pressures.  So as they got that more under control, his bleeding tapered considerably.  By this morning, he was down to about 20 ccs or less per hour which is very acceptable.  He has probably had all his blood replaced at this point.  So there is a great reason for you to go out and donate blood if you are so inclined.  :)

Because he was losing blood, however, his body was determined to hold on to any other fluid it could.  So his kidneys are a bit sick at this point.   Again, that is to be expected.  They tried a dose of Lasix to get him to pee, but he really didn't seem too willing yet, so they are going to wait and try again later today.  Jason pointed out that Tiernan ALWAYS waits until the very last minute to go pee anyway, so this was not a surprise to us.  hahaha

He is currently fully sedated and they have given him a medication to keep him from moving.  They call this a paralytic, but don't let that scare you.  It is not permanent.  They can't risk him moving and dislodging a clot that has formed or causing damage to all the amazing, delicate work Hanley did yesterday.  With the paralytic, it is very difficult to know if they have just enough or too much.  So they will begin to lift that today for brief periods of time to get a gauge on his responses and also see how his pain management is since that med makes it nearly impossible to tell how he is feeling.  Based on what they see, they will put him back into the immobile state and adjust his pain meds if necessary. 

For those Packard people out there who might be curious about our current team:
NP is Megan Tracy
Peds Attending is Josh Cisco
RN is Gina
Cardiac Attending at night was Dr. Sushma Reddy

So far we have been really happy with everyone.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to me is that, given all the work Dr. H did on his heart, he is not being paced at all.  He has pacer wires in place, just in case, but they are not using them.  His EKG looked normal.  I cannot believe that!  When the heart is operated on, it is easy for the electrical system to get irritated and stop firing properly.  So for him to be electrically normal following such an extensive reconstruction is astonishing.  And not just to me.  Dr. Obayashi seemed pretty surprised as well. 

I have been in pretty continual contact with Dr. O (which should not surprise anyone) and he is really happy with all the numbers.  The nurse has just started telling me things to text him and then says, "Don't worry.  He'll know what it means."  :)  It is SO great to get his response on everything because I know he'll tell me straight.
In addition, I have several other nurse and doctor type people helping me know what questions to ask and making suggestions.  I love it.  I'm not sure how much the nurses will.  hahaha

Tristan and my parents moved into the Stanford Guest House last night and really like it.  Tristan made sure to rub it in that there was a Starbucks, LITERALLY in the parking lot. 
We are still on the wait list for RonDon and they are gearing up to start construction.  That means they will need to relocate their immunosuppressed patients and that will open up some rooms for us.  Could be good news on that front soon I hope.
In the meantime, there is not room in the CVICU to put sleeper chairs.  So parents are not allowed to sleep there at all.  This makes it difficult for parents like us who always want to be there.  We also have scored a sleeper sofa in a parent sleep room.  It is a pull out sofa that will sleep two if necessary, but it is one of 5 such sofas in a smallish room.  So no privacy.  But no matter.  It's a place to lie down.  Last night, because the surgery went on so long, we were both up with Tiernan until 1am.  J went and slept until 4 and then I went up and slept until 6:45.  Definitely not ideal, so tonight we will try to be better about that.  And now really is the time to get sleep, since he is totally out of it.  Soon he will not want to let us out of his sight. 
The good news there is that when he moves out of the CVICU there will be a sleep space for one of us in the room. 
For now there is obscene amounts of coffee.

A few little stories for you to put all this in perspective.

1.The Surgical Fellow, Ali said that in his 10+ years of surgical experience, he has never seen anything like what Hanley did in Tiernan's heart.  He was in awe.

2. Before we left to come down here in May, Tiernan and I went to say goodbye to Dr. Park.  He said, "I will be amazed if Hanley is able to septate, even with the use of a conduit.  But if he does what he says he can do, which is septate WITHOUT the use of a conduit, then that man can walk on water as far as I'm concerned."

I guess he walks on water then.  hahaha.

I will leave you with my favorite picture of his perfect pink foot.  This is proof of the medical miracle Dr. Hanley worked last night.