recovery week

Some babies do well, while others do not. Torie's 1ft night in picu was a long one. She had problems when they tried to turn off the breathing machine-she didn't start breathing. Umm, not a small problem. Not a small anything when you wake up (i was sleeping in a chair) and see a doctor beside your baby and a nursing squeezing a bad of air into your babies lungs. I sat straight up and they quickly realized I was awake too. The machine was quickly turned back on of course. But I am not sure when my own heart started again. The next morning was wed and I was about to booted out for shift change. But again-something was wrong.The chambers of her heart were not working together, in synch. The nurse turned on the pacer wires that were connected to her heart-basically a pace maker on the outside. As the doctors and nurse gathered around her, they were explaining to me what was happening. Paul got stuck in the hallway because it was shift change. The charge nurse came looking for me, because Paul had tried to get through and she knew i was still in Torie's room. I was standing behind her bed, out of the way, so when she came looking for me and said I needed to leave....let's just say she accepted the look I shot her and a nice nurse saying I was about to leave. The charge nurse just said okay and walked away. Um, yeah, good luck trying to make me leave then! I waited until our favorite resident said things were going to be okay.Torie was not showing any signs of distress, it was all based on what the machine was showing. Her O2 and Bp were stable, so they were not going to panic. I finally left, 15 min later. Poor Paul was outside in the hall, only getting bits through text msgs. I told him all that had happened and started crying all over again. Torie did have a good day though. She stay stable and even came off the breathing machine in the evening shift change! We survived that night and Thursday. Friday seemed to last forever because Paul was back at work. I was alone in the huge hospital with hundreds of strangers. It's odd how you can be surrounded by that many people and still be alone. Friday night around 10 we got to move up to the cardiac floor! That mean we were in a big room and I could close the door! It also meant I got a couch vs a chair to sleep on. It was nice to actually stretch out and sleep, lol. Paul came up Saturday and stayed the night. On Sunday my parents came and saw Torie. I had made they wait until her chest tubes, pacer wires and ivs were all out. At that point Torie was drinking juice and eating real food again! She was so happy to see people visit. By Monday, I was ready to leave...while everyone was supper nice, I just wanted to be at home with my family. We had a wonderful nurse named Mercedes who whispered that if Torie's O2 cont to be stable, then we were going to leave on Tuesday. Needless to say, Torie and I had a nice heart to heart! We both wanted to be home in our own beds and were tired of the hospital. So Tuesday morning while Paul was teaching day class at karate, Kim came to visit and bring us home. We were all very excited. We made a quick stop at the ped's office to get Torie's last synigus (sp?) injection. A cold or rsv was the last thing we needed! Torie did well over the next several weeks. Her energy picked up, and she cut her first tooth exactly 1 wk after leaving vandy!Torie was finally allowed to go around people! She made her first visits to karate, family and friends. It was nice to get out of the house with her. She picked up her developmental skills and had a few growth spurts.
fast forwd to now, at 31 months old she is doing very well. She can pick out any letter of the alphabet when you ask. She knows several colors, shapes and can count by herself. She helps dress her self. Right now, our biggest changle is speech. That problem comes from both her heart problem and Di George Syndrome. Speech is a common problem for children with this syndrome. Torie loves daycare-although if you ask her about it, you better call it school! She won't answer any other way, lol. Mrs Glenda has done a wonderful job helping Torie learn and grow. Now, it's time to start planning a 3rd birthday party!!
We don't just celabrate her birth, it is so much more for us; it's surviving through all this, and knowing we did it; knowing SHE did it.
She is our daughter, our fighter.
She is victorious-she is Victoria.