Post post surgery

Xina finally left as I came back to the hospital around 3pm. When I got to Amelia, she was waking up here and there for seconds at a time, but doing fine. Grandma B showed up around 4:00, and as we were talking over the crib, Amelia started to wake up more. Throughout grandma's visit, she was awake for a good 30-45 minutes, not showing any signs of pain and in a relatively good mood. Grandma held her hand and talked to her while I did some laundry and followed emails. We did let her go back to sleep eventually, as she needed her rest. But I was proud of how well she was accepting things. She seemed a little confused by the arrangement, a thick tube back in her throat and something large and looming overhead (the heater). And that heater kept alarming off and waking her up (they eventually just turned it off because she was keeping her temperature just fine). Nevertheless, always the trooper.

By the time Gma had left, she'd had 2 blood gases and been weaned once. After shift change, she had a few more blood gases and they got her BPM down to the minimum they want (20) and they started weaning her pressure after that. We had thought we'd left blood gases behind a long time ago, as they're still hurtful and disturbing, but it's a necessary evil. After all the IV pokes and gases she's had in the last two days, her feet were a bit swollen and spattered with blood clot dots, and she was leary of anyone touching her feet. Thankfully, after the 9pm gas, they stopped trying to wean her every hr and the gases went to every 4 hrs. When I called @ 1am, her 1am gas was better than her 9pm; when we checked this morning, her 5am gas was a huge improvement over that, so they had weaned her to the minimum pressure setting they wanted before trying to extubate her. Her 9am gas was not so hot, though, so they are going to wait for rounds and the doctor to come by and decided if they want to extubate ASAP or wait for another few hrs. (I'm guessing another 1pm gas, and an extubation try if it's in the low 70s - it was in the 80s this past time). I know those number don't mean anything to you guys, but Xina and I have been thrown back into the numbers days, so that's how we keep track.

Anyway, here's hoping for afternoon extubation.

To reiterate Xina's thoughts, thank you all for all the prayers and good thoughts, even for the minor surgery. And a special thank you to Auntie Marian for staying the extra days to be with Xina and Amelia during the surgery and the Peaches for hanging in the house, also. Their presence was a nice added comfort to us both.