Erin Racine Clary: Sunday, May 12 2013

Erin has been released from the hospital! Amazingly, three days after having open heart surgery, she was released today and we are back in our hotel. It's been a long two days since the last update.

Yesterday, she still wasn't eating, and hadn't eaten anything other than a few popsicles since her surgery. She continued to have nausea from the anesthesia and was having a hard time even keeping water down. It was decided to give her anti-nausea medicine which helped greatly. The really tough part of the day was when the chest tube and catheter was removed. A friend of mine who is a nurse e-mailed me and strongly suggested that I ask for her to be medicated prior to the procedure. Erin was given the same oral sedative that she had in the OR waiting room to calm her, and act as an amnesia drug. The procedure was ugly and very tough to witness, but it was over and she was free of the two lines, with only the line in her jugular vein remaining.

She slept for hours after this, most likely from complete exhaustion and from the sedative. When she awoke, we took a walk and hit the playroom. During the entire ordeal, Erin had rarely spoken and at times seemed almost catatonic. In the playroom, she finally started to come out of it and we saw glimpses of the old Erin. Aunt Sara and Uncle Alex has flown in on Friday to be with us for the weekend, and we all sat around a table and played games at Erin's direction. After about an hour, she asked if she could have her dinner, which we brought into the playroom to eat. She ended up eating quite a bit, which was a complete relief. She then had a great night of sleep, sleeping the entire night.

Today, the doctors decided that she could go home. We had to endure the removal of the jugular line, which was the last awful procedure. Sheila could hear her screaming down the hall. Not fun at all to have to hold her down through it. She wasn't given the sedative because it would have required another day in the hospital. Actually, I could have used it personally.

We had flown her former nanny Priscilla in for the day to surprise Erin, thinking she would need a pick me up. It was a good call because even after a good night sleep she was in a lousy mood. She was completely over the entire process, and wanted to go home right now. After Priscilla got here, her mood brightened significantly and we continued to slowly see glimpses of her old self. She is eating pretty well, and taking plenty of fluids.

She had an EKG, a chest x-ray, and then we left. Interestingly, as we were leaving there were hundreds of brightly dressed Asian people lining the entrance as far as you could see. It turns out that the Dali Lama was arriving just as we were leaving. We didn't wait to see him, but it was an interesting thing to behold.

Erin has announced that she wants to go out to dinner tonight, although she is pretty wiped out on the couch. We shall see how she feels. Aunt Mo and cousin Megan just got here, driving from Chicago. I think it will probably be take-out in lieu of going out. Tomorrow, she has an echo scheduled with the head cardiologist, and then we are dismissed. She will be on oral lasix for a week, and alternatively tylenol and Advil for pain. She will also take a baby aspirin every day for an undetermined period.