monday 7/22/2013

10 am. Ava is doing better. She is being switched back to the conventional ventilator because she was fighting the oscillator with her own breathing. The only way to keep her on the oscillator would be to sedate her even harder which they didn't want to do. Her oxygen needs are at 50% down from the 70% last night and the vasopressin is weaned from 1.3 down to 0.3 which means her heart isn't needing as much support. The nurse thinks they might need to place another IV line today...which is a near impossible feat. 

12:30am (so technically it's tuesday..but I'm still on Monday time :). Ava is having a great night. She is still heavily sedated, that will likely be the last thing to wean. They've turned down the ventilator settings becuse she is taking so many of her own breaths. Her oxygen settings on the ventilator are at 50%. She was at 60-70% for much of today. She needs to be 30-40% on the ventilator to get to a CPAP or high flow nasal cannula. We also still need to wean the pressure going into the lungs. This will be determined by how the lungs look on chest x-ray. Right now her lungs need help staying open with that pressure, otherwise they collapse, in a sense. I hope her poor little throat isn't too sore after she is extubated. Her blood pressure has been high-but-good as the vasopressin has been weaned to 0.1. Her urine output is good, which is always nice to hear too. She is back to sweating quite a bit again, which we expect with her heart condition. I am thinking..at this point, that she will have a solid 10 days of intense antibiotic treatment, and then she will have heart surgery soon after that. Judging from rumors from rounds this morning, which I barely missed, it doesn't sound like they will wait 4-6 or 6-8 weeks before the full repair, especially with this second tet spell.  I do know now, though, that she will not get her g-tube before heart surgery. THat would be a minimum of 6 weeks after heart surgery. The cardiologist said that is the textbook answer.  Dr. Yost said I could have an honorary medical degree after this hehehe. 

 Isn't this picture amazing. Oh man it made me so happy. I think she is just over 9lbs now. I can't wait to hold her again! I haven't held her since the 15th.