Sunday was our last day at the hospital. We sent Liana, Andrea and Edwin to the floor to be in the care of the Honduran nurses along with Dennis. The four of them are doing well and should only need another day or two in the hospital before heading to the Barnabas House. Sunday was a very busy day for Judith. Her kidneys are still not functioning well so we placed a peritoneal dialysis catheter. Lori arranged for a Honduran pediatric surgeon to come and place the catheter. He was very nice and we are so grateful that he took the time to help us out. After Judith woke up from the sedation she received during the procedure we removed the breathing tube. We bring all the IV pumps and monitors with us so once the breathing tube was out I had to change out all of her meds so they could run on the Honduran pumps and put her on their monitor. I was concerned about how her blood pressure would tolerate changing her meds over but things went remarkably well. After that came trying to explain to the Honduran nurses how to take care of her. They don't take care of congenital heart defects and they hardly take care of children. I know that the are some of the best nurses in Honduras and they are wonderful people, we love them, but they truely aren't trained to take care of Judith and the issues she has. I broke down as I kissed Judith goodbye...I never knew leaving would be so hard. Her grandmother and I held each other tight as we said goodbye. We speak two different languages but it was like we knew exactly what the other was saying.
Yesterday we flew home. Such a long day on a plane for hours. I was so excited about getting home but so sad about leaving. Once I got home I got an update on Judith. She had some respiratory distress overnight and her oxygen sats were low so Monday morning they reintubated her and she is back on the ventilator. There was also some issues about where she was going to stay (Cemesa or the public hospital) and who is going to pay for her care.
Lori stayed in Honduras for a couple extra days to work out some details of Judith's care and I just got another update. She is still on the ventilator...they are hoping to get her off in the next day or two. Her renal function is slightly improved so they haven't had to start dialysis yet. She is still on a little bit of dopamine and hopefully they will be able to wean it off soon. With each day she seems to be moving more and making more purposeful movements. They were finally able to get her on TPN (IV nutrition) since she has not been able to eat and hopefully having better nutrition will give her more strength to recover faster.
It breaks my heart that we had to leave her. I wish so much that I could have stayed there until she was able to go home. I will continue to post updates on here as I get them. Thanks for all of your prayers they were very much felt and appreciated.
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