Adela made a bit more progress today. While we had to jump back to 0.5 liters per minute on her oxygen flow last night, she is now down to 0.3 liter per minute. Here’s hoping we’re able to maintain that tonight. Her various labs continue to improve with the exception of her electrolytes (sodium and
Yesterday and today have been thankfully uneventful. With the doctors cutting back on Adela’s heavy pain medicines and anti-anxiety medicines, she is waking up more and, when awake, is more alert. Her voice is still very raspy and she isn’t talking much (understandable since between the combination of her vocal cords needing to recover from
We have just moved up to Adela’s new room. While the PICU doctors cleared us to move this morning, we had to wait for a bed to become available upstairs. We’re now on the 5th floor in the CICCU (pronounced as “kick you”)…the Children’s Intermediate Cardiac Care Unit. The room is much larger than the
A lot happening today… Adela did well with the increased formula rates overnight, so the doctors and we are in agreement that she’s ready to move out of the PICU and into a regular room. We’re quite excited since this is a big step toward going home. We know we’ll still be here for a
Adela is taking it easy today. They have started working on spreading out her “fixes” of medicines. She seems to be doing ok. They are also just watching her while they ramp up her feedings. They said they would keep her here in the PICU until morning (unless they get a lot of traumas) and
Adela seems to be resting now…she drifted off to the sounds of the seashore from the white noise machine here in our room. The nurse just came in to give her a dose of Ativan (which relaxes her), Lasix (the diuretic), and a few antibiotics in addition to a diaper change. When the nurses took
Adela is doing well according to the doctors. However as they are trying to wean her off her drugs she is having some withdrawal that they are managing. She gets restless and confused. Hopefully the worst will pass in the next day or so as she adjust to not being on the fentanyl and just
This morning, the nurses removed Adela’s arterial line in her femoral artery. That was the line that was used primarily to monitor her blood pressure continuously and to draw blood for her “arterial blood gas” tests (which, among other things, tell how well her lungs are doing). This afternoon, her Foley catheter was removed. So,
Adela seems to be doing ok without the ventilator. They are very slowly weaning down the force of oxygen she is getting through her tubes. She slips between sleeping and slightly delirious from her meds. They are working on the weaning process for those as well. She is using her sign language and has tried
Adela was extubated at about 2:30 this afternoon and so far is doing fine. She is on a HFT cannula. Basically the nose tubes with warm air and a little extra oomph behind them. They will work her down to traditional ones when she’s ready. They are working with her on getting her to clear