Another update

We are five days out from surgery and doing ok. We are still in the intensive care unit and will be at least till tomorrow and maybe till Monday. Gracie has been fluid negative the last two days, but unfortunately there has been very little change in her chest x-ray. Her lungs are still so hazy. The Attending, is wondering why her lungs haven't changed with how negative she is, she has a couple of guesses 1. She has developed a cold--so now she is on precaution. Never mind the fact that she has no other signs, no fever, no change in her CBC numbers, and no runny nose. Gracie does cough quite a bit, always has, so... The othe guess is that she is aspirating on the 15ccs she was getting every two hours, so now she is NPO until at least Monday when they will do a shallow study.

I have been uneasy about these suggestions mostly because this response is typical Gracie. She has always struggled with her lungs after surgery. It is just a really slow process for her. So during rounds today I voiced my concerns. I don't like that she is on precautions cause I don't think it is necessary, but I guess it doesn't hurt to do a test. But it irritates me that she can't have any water! She really loves her water it is all that brings her relief and pleasure. I really don't think she has ever aspirated nor is aspirating right now...but my hands are tied. The good thing or what brought me comfort this morning during rounds is that Gracie's cardiologist is on call this last week and after I voiced my concerns he piped up and agreed with me. He said that his gut is telling him that Gracie isn't sick and that he doesn't think she is aspirating but that this is all how Gracie rolls and it will take her weeks to clear her lungs. How great to have a doctor to back you up!

So here we sit just waiting. Grace still has all her chest tubes in, her ART line and an IV in her right hand. Blood pressure is slowly creeping up. We are down from 7liters of high flow to only 2 liters of regular old oxygen. She hasn't pooped yet and is only getting 45ccs of feed every hour. We are still chasing her potassium and trying to figure out why her platelets dropped drastically. Today has been a rough day, really worn out and sleepy. We did get her up and out of bed and tried to get her walking. All she could tolerate was walking about 20 feet before she was done, she cuddled on my lap for 10 minutes then asked to be put back in bed and has slept soundly for the last couple hours.