Post op Update 3

It has been a little bit of a crazy 24 hours. Emma was making slow and steady progress yesterday. They were able to completely take her off of one of the inotropes, epinephrine, and significantly wean on her dopamine.  They also took her completely off her morphine and versed drips.   Emma's numbers were looking very much improved and the plan was to optimize her overnight and pull the tube this morning; however, overnight, her belly became more distended, she looked more puffy, and some of her numbers were up.

So today has been a bit of a juggling act getting her regulated.  They began a lasix drip to try to pull off excess fluid.  They also decided to leave her breathing tube in until they could adequately assess the drainage tube issue.  In the meantime, we went back up on sedation and got a heart Echo to see how her function and tricuspid valve regurgitation were doing.  

This afternoon, the IR doctor who placed  the drain brought up an ultrasound machine to try to determine why the drain was not draining much since her belly was a little bit bigger.  To all of our surprise, the reason her drain wasn't putting out much was because there is very little fluid in her abdomen.  It is in a good place, so we will leave it in for right now to let what little is in there out of there. So, the culprit for the extended belly this time is extreme gas and bloating.  We are venting her belly to try to help this pressure.

After her sedation/pain meds wore off this evening, we pulled her vent tube.  Now we are trying to get her to cough up all of the junk in her lungs and sit up in her chair to help with her Glenn headaches.  

Please pray for:

1. Her lungs to stay open and clear

2. Her belly to not be so bloated 

3. Her mood to improve 😉

4. Her heart function/tricuspid valve to look good

5.  For her recovery to continue to improve 

God is good!  All the time!  God is good!