She's gone wireless!

Praise the Lord, Berkeley is out of the hospital! No more wires. No more tubes. No more sleepovers in the cardiac unit! The gang is all together again at home.

Party in Room 264!

It's starting to feel like a roller coaster...we've been down, up, up higher, down again, then back up once more! Now, before you read the next paragraph, I want you all to know that Berkeley is doing great right now and resting peacefully. Okay...now you can read the exciting stuff:
Berkeley had made it out of ICU and was doing well on the regular cardiac floor. She decided to have a party, though, and invited 17 medical staff members to it. Unfortunately, her method of invitation was to get a swollen trachea and struggle with her breathing. I never imagined that many people could actually fit into one hospital room at one time - it was the kind of thing you THINK only happens on TV hospital shows. They rushed around making sure she had enough oxygen, bringing in a mobile ultrasound unit, and doing who knows what else (I couldn't see her half the time for the crowd of nurses and doctors surrounding her). Syringes of medicine were flying, and the doctors were talking to each other so urgently that they didn't even have time to "translate" for people like me. It was kind of scary, but Sean and I knew that she was getting good care. And in the midst of the craziness, with all these hands helping her, God reminded me that it was HIS hands that were really taking care of her.
She spent a few hours in the 12th floor ICU, then got moved back down to the cardiac ICU. Today she was promoted back to the regular cardiac floor and has been doing really well! As you can see from the video below (if you're dedicated enough to click on a link, that is!) she is making a great comeback! The doctors are predicting Monday for our departure date. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and encouragement, meals, help, and concern. We love our family and friends!



for the video and for more pictures, check out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/seanjuliesmith/OceanNight?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTbwvGZ9Mbj1gE

Bye C. U. !!

Well, it's official. The ICU at Childrens' Medical Center is no longer our temporary home. We moved on up (but still haven't gotten a piece of any pie) to the 8th floor this afternoon, and Berkeley is still doing great. She is having a little bit of a right lung mucous issue similar to what she had when we were here with pneumonia in January, but it's not nearly as problematic, and the doctors and nurses are still very happy with her status and how she is recovering.

We just met with our cardiologist, and he is very happy with how Berkeley is doing. He said that the goal is to get that right lung cleared out and make sure she's eating well, and we should be going home right on time.

Keep praying for a good recovery, particularly that she coughs out whatever mucous is still hanging around in that upper right lung, and we'll hopefully be home before too long. Thanks to all of our family and friends that have prayed for us, visited, called, brought food, and been all-around awesome. We love you all, and we thank our God upon every remembrance of you.

Hospital Update

Berkeley's recovery is going "by the book," the nurses say. I like hearing that! NO DRAMA NECESSARY!
She is resting peacefully right now, and has made a lot of progress today. She got her breathing tube out (it had been doing all the work for her lungs, but now she's doing it herself), her catheter is gone, as well as a tube monitoring the pressure in her left atrium. Also, she is supposed to get to have a bottle tonight! Based on the way she went after the minty mouth swab I used on her this morning, she'll be ready!
She's only really opened her eyes and looked at us once. That was wonderful...until she realized that being awake hurts! They quickly gave her a sedative and I promised not to bother her for awhile.
Since I couldn't hover over Berkeley, I decided to take a spy nap in the room. I like to act like I'm sleeping, even when I'm not, just to hear what all the nurses and doctors say to each other about her when they think I'm not listening. Nothing scandalous, but they're maybe a little more honest. I did hear one nurse make a funny comment when they were discussing Berkeley needing to urinate. She said, "how are we going to do that? Stick her hand in warm water?" I thought that made all my eaves-napping worth it.

Doing Great!

This is just a quick update from my iPhone at the hospital, so it will be brief and very well may contain some grammatical errors. But here's the great news: Berkeley is out of surgery and is doing great so far. She apparently did very well in the operating room, and the surgeon said that her heart repair went beautifully. Keep praying for her recovery to go well!

Pat-a-verse

 

Brighton has somehow put pat-a-cake on the same level as scripture and prayer. I'm not exactly sure how this happened. A few weeks ago, she was saying pat-a-cake, and getting pretty into it. She was wrapping it up - "and put it in the oven for baby and me!...AMEN!"
This morning, she spontaneously said one of the bible verses she's memorized - Ephesians 6:1. She had learned the verse by way of a little cheer we made up. When we say "Ephesians," we roll our hands and draw the name out, like a rah rah sis boom bah kind of cheerleader routine. I guess it worked - she recited it perfectly! "Children, obey your parents, as believers in the Lord." Then came the ever spiritual pat-a-cake reference. Instead of Ephesians 6:1, she cheered,"Roll it...6:1!"

Animation of the AV Canal surgery

AV Canal Surgery

go to this link if you're wondering what exactly needs to be fixed in Berkeley's heart, and how they're going to fix it.

Change of Plans

 

Sean, Berkeley, and I spent 8 hours at the hospital today doing preop activities...lots of fun stuff, like x-rays, echocardiograms, EKG's, blood draw, and more! Berkeley got her stamp of approval on having surgery tomorrow. Later this evening, we got a call from the nurse telling us that Berkeley had gotten bumped from the schedule on Thursday (some little baby needed surgery more immediately than her). The nurse said that it wouldn't be Friday, either...but I'm praying that something will open up. I was so hoping to have the surgery before Spring break and have that whole week off as she recovers.
Right now we're just waiting for a call to let us know when the surgery will be. I figure it doesn't hurt to ask God to get us in sooner than later!