Sedation=Drunkeness

Before your imagination gets carried away, no, none of our household was drunk. At least not literally. But in a manner of speaking? Perhaps.

I mentioned that Grace had her Biopsy in late August. Although it went really well, Grace's Dr. (Dr. Everitt) said they wanted a more clear picture of her ascending aorta, because the gradients/pressures were shown to be a bit uneven. They weren't particularly worried, but just wanted to be safe. So we scheduled a sedated echo for a month after her Biopsy. That was just a couple of days ago and boy oh boy, it was quite a day.

When Grace goes in for a sedated echo, she has to be fed differently beforehand, so I set an alarm on my phone for the day before, so I would remember to feed her differently. But, setting it the day early proved to be too early, as I had forgotten by the time her evening meal rolled around and promptly fed her a bottle. Her echo was supposed to be at 8:30a.m, but since she had the bottle the night before, we couldn't do the 8:30 echo anymore. Which was a bummer, because it would have been much easier to not feed her the night before and all night long. She doesn't typically wake for midnight snacks. But, our rescheduled echo time was 2:30... now I'd have to keep her hungry all morning and afternoon. I knew it would put her in great spirits for the echo... starving and mad. I tried to postpone breakfast as long as possible, and made sure we ate the same thing, so she couldn't ask for something else. Raspberry Jell-o and apple juice isn't the best breakfast in the world. But, oh well.

We got to the Dr. at 1:30 and she was angelic. Completely the opposite of how she usually behaves for echos. She is always kicking and screaming and sprawling all over, but this time she was so good!! She insisted on holding her baby doll, and she would rub its head and give it kisses and tell people around her to "shhhh" because baby was asleep. She was so sweet.

For the first 15 minutes.

The doctors felt like she was pretty cooperative, but not "still" enough, so they figured they would try to just give her half of the sedation dose. Just the feel of the medicine going into her vein sent her over the edge. Strange, I know, but its true. How she doesn't love cold liquid streaming through her arm is beyond me. She didn't like that feeling one bit. So, they had to give her the full dose, plus a dissociative, (relaxant). I had to hold her in my arms because no one could restrain her little body on the bed as she kicked, screamed, arched her back and tried to roll away from everyone. Holding her little body in my arms as different parts lost complete control was so hard!! She was fighting me with every fiber of her being, but was slowly losing control of her head, and her eyelids, and so on. Poor thing, even once her eyes were closed and she couldn't lift her head anymore she was still pushing against me. It took her a good 10 minutes until we could put her back on the bed, and even then, she continued to whimper in her sleep, just to show she was still protesting.

They said that most babies will stay asleep for 2 hours, and not to wake them early, because they will be very very grumpy. Since Grace can so easily have a mean streak, I really didn't want her to wake up early. However, I also knew that if Grace had any say in the matter she'd wake up the second her eyes could open, whether the rest of her body was ready or not.

And that's just what she did. Exactly 45 minutes after they'd administered the sedatives, and only 2 minutes after finishing the echo, she started to wake up. Go figure they were moving her upstairs in a bed, so her floppily trying to sit up in the bed was NOT a good thing. She smacked her head into the side railing, then on the oximeter and was just all over the place. When we got to the post-op floor she was writhing in my arms, with no head strength mind you, and her eyes rolled back into her head, and moaning loudly. Of course, for comic relief, she was doing all of this verrrryyyyy sllllooooooowwwlyyyyy. Sort of like someone had hit the slo-mo button. I would ask her a question, and she would nod "yes", but when she lifted her head up, it would roll back and stay for a second, then she'd push it forward, and it would roll way forward onto her chest and be stuck there until I held it against my chest. So I decided to stop asking her questions.

They got her a warm blanket (they have these amazing blanket ovens) and put it over her, she immediately responded with "aahhhhhht" "aaahhhhhht". "Yes baby, its hot, huh?" Then another nod of the head, locked backwards, and then locked forward. "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht". It was so hysterically adorable, and sad at the same time!

Even though her eyes were still practically closed, she wanted to get down from my lap and walk around. They warned me she would be VERY dizzy, uncoordinated and to watch her very closely. I underestimated their meaning. She had NO coordination WHAT SO EVER.

So, back on to my lap she went, complaining, and moaning the whole time.

She tried to drink a bottle of juice, but drooled a lot of it out. Also very funny. And finally was happy with oreos. Most of the filling ended up up her nose, because she couldn't use her hands. She had a big band aid on one from the labs they drew, and an i.v. in the other one, (which means the cardboard up her hand) and so she had no control of her hands and where they were putting the cookie. So, up her nose they went. But she was happy anyway.

When they said we could be discharged from post-op and head downstairs for clinic, Grace was completely awake, but still very loopy.

But she insisted on walking. Gratefully, Topher was with us by this point and could help her. But, she didn't want any help. She wanted to walk and dang it, she didn't want Dad's help. He would try to hold her hand, and she would shove his fingers away from hers, and begin to walk. She couldn't put one foot in front of the other without tripping over it, and couldn't walk even one step straight. She swayed this way and that, tripped over this foot and then the other one. Fell over, then tried to get up and fell back wards. Then cried for help, and started all over again. But she didn't lose her grip on the Oreos in her hand.

The rest of clinic had to be performed in the hallways of Cardiology because she was not about to sit on some hospital bed in a hospital room. She was done sitting. She wanted to be walking around putting on her best impersonation of a tipsy 18 month old. Everyone that saw her laughed hysterically. Her Doctor could barely get out a sentence before having to pause and just laugh at Grace's attempts to walk without tipping over.

When they sent us home they said she would need constant supervision, and that she would be grumpy and clumsy at least until the next morning.

She slept on the way home and another 40 minutes once we got home. When she woke up and I went in to get her out of bed, she was leaning her arms and head against the railing of her bed, crying. But, she was crying very slowly, and in a much lower tone than usual. It was crying in slow motion! Once she saw me, she gave me a crooked smile, reached her arms up for me.....and fell backwards into her bed.

I pulled her little body up, and took her into the living room, where she of course, just wanted down. I put her down......and she fell over into the movie case. So, I decided to just put her in her spot on the couch. I tucked her as far back as she goes, put pillows around her and put a movie on. In the time it took me to lean away from the couch and push play, she had tried to turn around and climb off the couch. Instead, she managed to fall off the couch and land on her back. So, I propped her up, between the couch, and the coffee table, while I went to push play again. This time.....she fell over side ways, hitting her head on the coffee table leg, AND the chaise. And since she never cried after any of her falls (she just looked very, very confused each time she fell), Topher and I didn't have to feel guilty for chuckling.... perhaps even laughing hysterically. each time she tipped over.

The poor thing had such a hard night. On top of the clumsiness she was also EXTREMELY grumpy. So, it was a good thing there were things to laugh at every once and a while, or we might have gone crazy with such a grump on our hands.

Anyway, I just had to post about this. As I've said before, this is a form of journaling for me, and I don't want to forget how hysterically cute she was that whole day.

I wish more than anything I had had my camera. Pictures wouldn't have done the day justice, but video for sure would have. But, alas, its still at my sister's. However, they said these sedated echos will be a twice a year occurrence...so next time, I am GOING to have my camera in hand, ready to capture my stubborn and tipsy Grace.