As usual, Auntie Em ensured that Abby was looking her best by getting her some beautiful new bows to help out the doctors around here. It's hard to be styling when you lay around in your diaper all the time with tubes all over your chest - but Aunt Emily always finds a way!
This morning Abby's x-rays showed that she had collapsed both her lungs again last night - only the top 25% - as they weaned the ventilator - but - the doctors decided to go ahead with taking out Abby's breathing tube. They said sometimes it really helps them not to have the tube in there. We had to wait for them to turn off her sedation and for her to wake up fully (if she was too drugged, often times babies fall asleep and forget to breathe) so they spent the morning and early afternoon weaning the ventilator to no support, then we waited for her to wake up, and then they pulled her tube! She coughed a few times, then started breathing great! So that's a major hurdle to have made it over. She's now on a small oxygen machine that gives her some support in opening up her lungs - they'll start to wean that tomorrow and see how she does. Since the new machine makes her look a bit like she has an elephant trunk - and requires a hat to hold the tubes out of her face that doesn't allow her to wear her new bows - we're fairly certain she'll be working her way off that machine soon too!
Along with the breathing tube going away - so did all the sedation medication! We watched as tube after tube was removed from her central line.
Right now the section of Abby's heart that starts the heartbeat is going a bit slow. The heart works great and does exactly what it's supposed to do once the beat is started. Right now they've hooked her back up to her pacemaker to ensure that she doesn't drop any lower than 90. When she came off the ventilator she was up in the 110's - and we were all hopeful that the slower heartrate was due to sedation - but throughout the night she's dipped back down and is "riding the pacemaker" at 90. The doctors are hopeful that because we have seen her heart work just fine it will just be a matter of time until this problem corrects itself.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for "liquid gold" - yesterday Abby was "negative 700"! Which - in English for those of you who haven't listened to doctors round 3 times a day for nearly 2 weeks - means that she got rid of 700 mL's more than what they gave her. One of her surgeons actually threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed "Now THAT'S progress!" She's been given permission to break even from now on... so those prayers can be directed at her heart rate now.
The doctor's expect that she'll have a bit of withdrawal from the intense sedation drugs - so just like an addict she may have the sweats, etc. They're giving her a bit of Tylenol with codeine to "take the edge off". I don't think anyone else in rehab looks as sweet as she does.
3 comments:
Way to go, Abby! You have been working so hard; I know you'll be back to your bows soon. You are always in our thoughts and prayers and Mommy and Daddy too!
Yay Abby! You know, all you need is a little masking tape and that hat can too have a bow! We're proud of you and your parents.
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