Thursday, July 16, 2009

July 16th = 4 weeks of hospitalization

From Ron:
If you've read yesterdays update, you know that Elena was finally scheduled for her trach and the removal of fluids around her heart.

After our arrival at the hospital, in the very early morning hours, they finally began a myriad of work on Elena at 2:00pm. The preparations were extremely impressive. They spent several hours trying to create as sterile an environment as possible, spilling out of Elena's room and taking over the hallway. There were close to 20 people involved in the process, all for our little Elena. The Herculean effort to make this easy on Elena is humbling to say the least.

They removed 150cc's of fluids from around Elena's heart, installed a tracheotomy, removed every line that had been installed for more than 3 days, and this included 4 chest tubes, several catheters and 4 IV lines. While under sedation they also did a visual inspection of her lungs as well as taking tissue samples to better understand where she is in the recovery process.

Everything went well and Elena was resting comfortably post op. We will not know any real results for at least 24 hours but the easing of pressure on her heart and more flexible airway options certainly can't hurt. This is potentially a start to recovery.

Thank you all for your continued support and thank God for her survival.

4 comments:

  1. That sounds like great news! I hope. Thanks for all the updates Ron, I know this must be extremly difficult for you. My thoughts and prayers are with Elena daily.

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  2. That sounds like great news! I hope. Thanks for all the updates Ron, this must be extremly difficult for you. My thoughts and prayers are with Elena and your family daily.

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  3. So glad that things went well for Elena today.

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  4. Ron & Mary,

    My prayers are with you now & will be every day until she is fully recovered and comes home. Tomorrow will be a good day & I thank you for keeping us updated.

    Love Always, Cheryl

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