1st morning after surgery

Many pumps already off...

a bit swollen

Megan somehow woke up a 6:30am in time to call and catch our nurse before she changed shift.  Not much had changed through the night - the ventilator was still connected with 50% oxygen, she was still on Fentanyl and Versed for pain and sedation.  She told the nurse we would be in at 8:30 - the earliest we can come in after rounds.

At 10:00am we woke up.  Oops!  Goes to show what stress and exhaustion will do to you... we were pretty relieved when we left here last night at 1am.  This is probably the first night we have been able to sleep without interruption in four months!

Off the ventilator!

We arrived just before noon to find that several things *had* changed.  Ventilator has been removed - no more giant tube down her throat.  She has a nasal cannulus delivering 100% oxygen, but she is breathing on her own.  Chest x-ray this morning showed minor collapse in the upper right and lower left lungs, so they are treating with what they call "the electric toothbrush" which tries to use vibration to clear those areas and let her cough it up.  No percussion so far - I hated seeing them perform that last time.  Most of the pumps are now off, as you can see here.  The Versed (pain) has been stopped since this morning.  The Fentanyl (sedation) has been reduced to .336ml/hr, which is to say almost nothing (the nurse called it a "spit"!).  Still getting a 10% dextrose (sugar) solution, but they made the decision to start her feeding this afternoon.  They also started her on Lasix to reduce the swelling... which for some reason seems centered around her poor neck!  We told her nurse she had been working out.

Mommy gives her first post-op drink

We had apparently arrived just after she fell asleep, so we missed her waking up.  Feel some guilt about that.  Megan got to feed her a bottle of Pedialyte when she did finally wake up, and will start a bottle of breast milk soon... a few hours?  They want to make sure she can keep this down.  So far so good.

Ventilator replaced with hi-flow cannulus

Our amazing surgeon Dr. Ilbawi

Haven't seen the doctor yet, so don't have any kind of updated longer term plan.  Happy just to be sitting with her right now.  She is doing VERY well (to be expected from Super Baby).