Stressful Snippets
WARNING - This is a long one. I had a lot to get off my chest.
First, I'll try to recap what my cousin Brittany tried to explain to me about what happened with her son Riley's open heart surgery today. Then I'll move on to the next source of stress in my life and lastly, I'll try to lighten things up with some nice, sweet snippets.
First of all, from what I can ascertain it seems that Riley is likely going to be ok for now. When the surgeon went in (and by the way, they went in through his side, pushing aside his ribs to get in there - WOW!, I thought they would go through his sternum),
he found that Riley's heart looked nothing like how he thought it would after studying the electrocardiogram information (data? pictures?). Now, keep in mind that this is my interpretation of what Brittany interpreted the surgeon to be telling her. The entire left side of Riley's heart is smaller than it should be, including his aorta. There was a "shelf", as they thought, but either there was also another point of constriction or the entire remainder of Riley's aorta is too small. The "shelf" was successfully removed and Riley's blood pressures improved (prior to the surgery, Riley's blood pressure in his arms vs. in his legs differed by 19 points; after the surgery, they differed by 10 points and the surgeon was quite pleased with that. In a person with a normal heart the blood pressure measurements should not differ between the arms and the legs at all). The surgeon assured Brittany and Rory that everything he noted in Riley's heart are things that can corrected with surgery, if need be, in the future. Tomorrow, Riley will be weaned off the ventilator and if all goes well, he will only have to be in the NICU for two more days. Then he will be moved to a regular floor and will recover there for at minimum, one week. This all depends on how stable he remains and if he eats well. The doctor is confident he will eat since he nursed several times before things went so wrong last Saturday. So, it sounds as if after a few weeks of recovery, Riley will get to go home and will be monitored for how his little body adapts to his "abnormal" heart. If he is not tolerating his anatomy, more surgeries will be performed when and as needed. Getting this news straight from Brittany's mouth lifted a weight from my shoulders. I was so frightened and sad all day after receiving a cryptic message from Britt earlier today indicating the surgery was over but things were bad and more things were wrong with Riley's heart and it was likely he was going to need more surgery. *NEWSFLASH* While writing this blog post, Brittany called me from the hospital to tell me an amazing story that gave me chills over my entire body. On Monday, when we were all assembled at the hospital for Riley's baptism, two members of the church we grew up in happened to show up to pray with us. The lovely people were husband and wife. The husband just called Brittany to tell her that he was listening to the radio station KTIS on his way in to work this morning. An anonymous call was taken by the D.J. and the caller stated, "I am calling asking for prayers for a young couple who just had a little baby who has a very sick heart. He is undergoing open heart surgery this morning. Could everyone please say a prayer for little Riley Bruneau?" Brittany was blown away that seemingly random people in the world know of her plight and are soliciting mass prayers for her. God is great people!
After talking to Brittany in person, I cheered up. I planned to review some on-line tutorials my coworker told me about which would show me how to use neat fonts in blogger and how to add other fun bits and bytes to Stewart Snippets. I started to look at some things and then....dun, dun, dun, I noticed there was something amiss with my fur-baby, Rosko. I am a dog person. I love dogs and can't imagine ever living without one around (my husband could do without furry, destructive, descended-from-wild-wolves beings in his house but we all have to deal with our spouses quirks, right?). About a year before Stu and I were married, and while I was still living with my mom, my dog Daisy died. I was devastated and told Stu I wanted to get another dog after we married. Stu and I moved in together about 6 months before we were married and within 6 weeks had an adorable little yellow lab mix puppy we adopted from the St. Francis Animal Rescue.
He had been christened with the name "Twinkie" but if Stu had to have a dog-baby, he was not going to be yelling "Twinkie" out the door when calling him in for supper. We decided to change his name to Rosko. Stu liked the name and I liked the spelling. He was really our first child. We coddled him and took him to "doggie school" together. When I talked to Rosko, I referred to Stu as "papa". When our human babies came, Rosko fell a little lower on the totem pole but now he has five humans who love him like crazy instead of just two. He has been the most amazing, wonderful dog around babies and toddlers and now young-school age kids. He tolerates any kind of abuse (excessive love) including tail pulling, eye poking, and mouth probing.
Back to the present - while looking at the computer, I noticed that nearly-nine-year-old Rosko was sitting up but resting his chin on the coffee table in an uncomfortable looking position. At first I laughed at his goofy hijinks but then I realized he was panting lightly and had a look in his eyes that said, "Help me Mommy". I got down on my knees and felt his body all over, paying careful attention to the 10 or so fatty tumors he has dotting his body. Nothing seemed to cause him undue pain. I told Ryann that Rosky didn't feel well and that she should take him with her to her room to lie down. When I went to check on them and say goodnight to Ryann, Rosko was sitting up by her bed and panting. Usually he lies right down in her room to fall asleep with her. I urged him to lie down and Ryann said, "He doesn't want to, Mommy, his tummy hurts". I tried to physically get him to lie down and he cried out in pain. I told Ryann he was going to need to come to the living room so mommy could keep an eye on him and Stu and I checked him over some more. We determined his left front leg seems to be very sore in his shoulder and/or armpit area. He does have a small tumor in his armpit there so I don't know if that's hurting him or if he overexerted himself trying to keep up with Rags in the backyard. In either case, I ran to Walgreen's and consulted with the pharmacist and came home with some Bayer baby aspirin and gave two of them to Rosky. I tried to get him to drink some water but he refused. The baby aspirin seems to have helped because Stu and I had bodily gotten him to a side laying position from which he had not moved in some time but when Stu got up to go to bed a short while ago, Rosko got up, followed him, and managed to lie down in our bedroom. If he is still in pain in the morning, I'll be taking him to the vet. I honestly don't know how much more trauma I can take. So please say your prayers for my sweet doggie.
Now, for some uplifting Snippets:
Max uses the phrase "pretty much", pretty much all the time lately. He'll finish telling you some long-winded story and end with, "Soooo, pretty much, XXX". Cracks me up!
Adam is using the word "actually" a lot lately and is actually using it correctly. For example, I asked him if he needed to use the potty tonight. He said he did. He sat on the potty and nothing was coming. He looked into my eyes and explained, "Acshuwy, no. No potty".
Ryann explained to Stu and I at the dinner table tonight (a gal after my own heart - gruesome talk while eating!) that the restroom was referred to as such since you could take a rest while on the potty.
First, I'll try to recap what my cousin Brittany tried to explain to me about what happened with her son Riley's open heart surgery today. Then I'll move on to the next source of stress in my life and lastly, I'll try to lighten things up with some nice, sweet snippets.
First of all, from what I can ascertain it seems that Riley is likely going to be ok for now. When the surgeon went in (and by the way, they went in through his side, pushing aside his ribs to get in there - WOW!, I thought they would go through his sternum),
 |
| See the small patch on his left side there covering his incision? |
he found that Riley's heart looked nothing like how he thought it would after studying the electrocardiogram information (data? pictures?). Now, keep in mind that this is my interpretation of what Brittany interpreted the surgeon to be telling her. The entire left side of Riley's heart is smaller than it should be, including his aorta. There was a "shelf", as they thought, but either there was also another point of constriction or the entire remainder of Riley's aorta is too small. The "shelf" was successfully removed and Riley's blood pressures improved (prior to the surgery, Riley's blood pressure in his arms vs. in his legs differed by 19 points; after the surgery, they differed by 10 points and the surgeon was quite pleased with that. In a person with a normal heart the blood pressure measurements should not differ between the arms and the legs at all). The surgeon assured Brittany and Rory that everything he noted in Riley's heart are things that can corrected with surgery, if need be, in the future. Tomorrow, Riley will be weaned off the ventilator and if all goes well, he will only have to be in the NICU for two more days. Then he will be moved to a regular floor and will recover there for at minimum, one week. This all depends on how stable he remains and if he eats well. The doctor is confident he will eat since he nursed several times before things went so wrong last Saturday. So, it sounds as if after a few weeks of recovery, Riley will get to go home and will be monitored for how his little body adapts to his "abnormal" heart. If he is not tolerating his anatomy, more surgeries will be performed when and as needed. Getting this news straight from Brittany's mouth lifted a weight from my shoulders. I was so frightened and sad all day after receiving a cryptic message from Britt earlier today indicating the surgery was over but things were bad and more things were wrong with Riley's heart and it was likely he was going to need more surgery. *NEWSFLASH* While writing this blog post, Brittany called me from the hospital to tell me an amazing story that gave me chills over my entire body. On Monday, when we were all assembled at the hospital for Riley's baptism, two members of the church we grew up in happened to show up to pray with us. The lovely people were husband and wife. The husband just called Brittany to tell her that he was listening to the radio station KTIS on his way in to work this morning. An anonymous call was taken by the D.J. and the caller stated, "I am calling asking for prayers for a young couple who just had a little baby who has a very sick heart. He is undergoing open heart surgery this morning. Could everyone please say a prayer for little Riley Bruneau?" Brittany was blown away that seemingly random people in the world know of her plight and are soliciting mass prayers for her. God is great people!
After talking to Brittany in person, I cheered up. I planned to review some on-line tutorials my coworker told me about which would show me how to use neat fonts in blogger and how to add other fun bits and bytes to Stewart Snippets. I started to look at some things and then....dun, dun, dun, I noticed there was something amiss with my fur-baby, Rosko. I am a dog person. I love dogs and can't imagine ever living without one around (my husband could do without furry, destructive, descended-from-wild-wolves beings in his house but we all have to deal with our spouses quirks, right?). About a year before Stu and I were married, and while I was still living with my mom, my dog Daisy died. I was devastated and told Stu I wanted to get another dog after we married. Stu and I moved in together about 6 months before we were married and within 6 weeks had an adorable little yellow lab mix puppy we adopted from the St. Francis Animal Rescue.
He had been christened with the name "Twinkie" but if Stu had to have a dog-baby, he was not going to be yelling "Twinkie" out the door when calling him in for supper. We decided to change his name to Rosko. Stu liked the name and I liked the spelling. He was really our first child. We coddled him and took him to "doggie school" together. When I talked to Rosko, I referred to Stu as "papa". When our human babies came, Rosko fell a little lower on the totem pole but now he has five humans who love him like crazy instead of just two. He has been the most amazing, wonderful dog around babies and toddlers and now young-school age kids. He tolerates any kind of abuse (excessive love) including tail pulling, eye poking, and mouth probing.
Back to the present - while looking at the computer, I noticed that nearly-nine-year-old Rosko was sitting up but resting his chin on the coffee table in an uncomfortable looking position. At first I laughed at his goofy hijinks but then I realized he was panting lightly and had a look in his eyes that said, "Help me Mommy". I got down on my knees and felt his body all over, paying careful attention to the 10 or so fatty tumors he has dotting his body. Nothing seemed to cause him undue pain. I told Ryann that Rosky didn't feel well and that she should take him with her to her room to lie down. When I went to check on them and say goodnight to Ryann, Rosko was sitting up by her bed and panting. Usually he lies right down in her room to fall asleep with her. I urged him to lie down and Ryann said, "He doesn't want to, Mommy, his tummy hurts". I tried to physically get him to lie down and he cried out in pain. I told Ryann he was going to need to come to the living room so mommy could keep an eye on him and Stu and I checked him over some more. We determined his left front leg seems to be very sore in his shoulder and/or armpit area. He does have a small tumor in his armpit there so I don't know if that's hurting him or if he overexerted himself trying to keep up with Rags in the backyard. In either case, I ran to Walgreen's and consulted with the pharmacist and came home with some Bayer baby aspirin and gave two of them to Rosky. I tried to get him to drink some water but he refused. The baby aspirin seems to have helped because Stu and I had bodily gotten him to a side laying position from which he had not moved in some time but when Stu got up to go to bed a short while ago, Rosko got up, followed him, and managed to lie down in our bedroom. If he is still in pain in the morning, I'll be taking him to the vet. I honestly don't know how much more trauma I can take. So please say your prayers for my sweet doggie.
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| Sweet boy |
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| Can you blame him for trying to steal a lick? |
Now, for some uplifting Snippets:
Max uses the phrase "pretty much", pretty much all the time lately. He'll finish telling you some long-winded story and end with, "Soooo, pretty much, XXX". Cracks me up!
Adam is using the word "actually" a lot lately and is actually using it correctly. For example, I asked him if he needed to use the potty tonight. He said he did. He sat on the potty and nothing was coming. He looked into my eyes and explained, "Acshuwy, no. No potty".
Ryann explained to Stu and I at the dinner table tonight (a gal after my own heart - gruesome talk while eating!) that the restroom was referred to as such since you could take a rest while on the potty.
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