Electricity

Sadie was moved from one of the main larger operational rooms to a smaller side room in the cardiac ICU- this was a BIG step. She has a big window that overlooks the UF campus, and a whole lot less machinery attached to her. It also happens to be the room closest to the exit doors. She made note of that when they brought her here and her nurses joked that she wasn't allowed to make a break for it yet. 

Her transplant team is hopeful that she'll be allowed to move down to the pediatric floor sometime this upcoming week- however- we've hit a little bit of a hiccup. 

Sadie's heart has a bit of an electrical mix up. Because of this mix up her heart rate drops to very low rates- last night it got a little too low for everyone's comfort- even though it was still working very well and her body was being adequately taken care of by the heart- her trend to a slower heartrate since they've disconnected the pacer cables- was a bit of a concern. So around 1am last night they decided to reconnect her pacer cables just to be cautious and try to regroup today with a plan.

Her doctors just stopped by and were weighing options, caffeine is on the table for treatment but they're concerned that the caffeine will also raise her blood pressure- which is already being treated to for being a little too high.  Instead they have decided to try to a medication that can increase her heart rate and as a bonus it's also good for her asthma. We are hopeful this will be a good option for her because if they can't control it with medication the other option is to have an internal pace maker- I can tell you that no one here wants that for her- they are going to exhaust their options for rate control to help with the electrical circuit first- but it is a last resort option. 

Sadie is none the wiser about any of this- she's happy and awake and back to her normal Sadie self. Every day she asks when we get to leave because she feels better already- and she's "done being in the hospital". We have been running through activities and games to try to keep her mind occupied and distracted while the team works hard on getting the last pieces of her heart sorted. If she could write on her window she would say "send dogs". It's the one thing she asks for multiple times a day. Unfortunately because we're in the CICU there are no therapy dogs allowed- but hopefully we can go down to the ped floor soon and she can get some dog time in. 

Lots of love and prayers, lets hope no pace maker is needed.