Post-op day #4...weaning the ventilator...again

December 16th: Our goals for today are to re-attempt to wean the vent settings, to continue diuresis, and to wean her Epinephrine- another cardiac medication. I know this seems like a repeat of yesterday's post...it feels kinda like the movie Groundhog Day! Hopefully today will be more successful. Emersyn was able to drop quite a bit of fluid in the last 24hrs, her weight is down almost a whole pound...but she still has a long way to go, another 2 pounds of fluid is still sitting in her tissues. The swelling looks slightly better, but still horribly uncomfortable. The doctors tell me it will take days to get the fluid off at the rate she is going. In addition, the excess fluid has leaked into her lungs and caused pleural effusions on both sides so now she has that to contend with while trying to breathe independently. I really don't know how this poor baby can possibly be strong enough for this, but she makes improvements and continues to amaze me each day.

Evening update: The vent settings were weaned several times throughout the day, but Emmy never made it back to the "auto mode" which requires her to do all of her breathing on her own. The settings will continue to be weaned overnight so that hopefully tomorrow morning they will be able to put her back into auto mode in preparation for extubation. The Epinephrine was discontinued today, so she now has 1 less IV line and pump! They were able to start her on feeds through a tube in her nose. For now, the rate is very slow and increases by only 1cc every 6 hours. The goal is just to prime the the GI tract for full feeds later on, and Emmy is tolerating it very well. Her Fentanyl drip (pain medication) was lowered to allow her to be more awake and hopefully do more breathing on her own. She does occasionally seem to be in pain and require extra medicine to calm back down, but the nursing staff is quick to respond when she shows signs of discomfort. The team continues to tell me that she is doing well and making excellent strides toward recovery. I am happy with her progress, but as always wish that our goals could be met faster!!!