The first 24 hours

Other than pumping every few hours, Megan and I were able to get some sleep last night, and I am here this morning in Muriel's room feeling much more rested than I have in the past week.  She is sleeping now, but apparently through the night she was often awake, eyes open, and comfortable.  Someone decorated her last night :)  The bow looks very pretty on her!

Her swelling already peaked this morning - the above pics are on the downswing.  When the doctors came by for rounds a few minutes ago the first question they asked was "where is the swelling?!?".  She seems to be the perfect recovery patient.  When I arrived she was actually off the pacemaker already, and the Heart block (expected after this kind of surgery) seemed to be gone.  Unfortunately around the same time they took off the pacemaker her lactic acid levels rose, so they started it again while trying other things to reduce it.

The top trace line is the heart rate, and the funky pattern is the result of the pacemaker

They are starting diuretics (furosemide (Lasix)) today to reduce the fluids in her tissues which will also help the lungs and hopefully get her off the ventilator in the next few days.  All of her blood gases are looking perfect right now, including her CO2.  They are convinced now that the surgery has improved her blood flow in a way that has made the CO2 problem go away.  Excellent news.

I just asked the Cardiologist (Dr. Melissa) what challenges we are working on this morning, and stumped her!  Basically everything is in normal ranges right now, and there isn't anything they are working on to resolve.

Cardiologist Dr. Melissa Nater

We got casts of her hand and foot yesterday just before surgery, and the finished product arrived this morning.  So cute!