first blood transfusion 5/10/2013

today cardiology, who round on Ava frequently, decided they want her hematocrit higher. they thought that if Ava had more blood that it would increase her oxygen carrying capacity and that she might come out of her desaturation spells better and faster. i don't know that it helped, but it was a flawless transfusion, thankfully. The clonadine that was started yesterday may be helping. her tremors were significantly reduced today. i held her around 3pm today and went back to the hospital again at about midnight to hold her. she did well. in the afternoon she was very alert and looking around which was nice. we rarely see that because usually she is so exhausted from just breathing.  she only had to be "bagged" (assisted breathing) twice today which is good. last night it happened several times. doctors are discussing doing the dilation procedure on her esophagus soon, but we'll see..usually that doesn't happen until at least 6 weeks after surgery for safety reasons.