Ella looked good this evening. Actually, her stats looked really good. We were excited to see her progression.
 
When we spoke with Dr. Kays, he mentioned the excess fluid leaving her body too rapidly and how they are backfilling some of that fluid with saline, sodium and electrolytes.
 
He did mention that there is excess fluid on her right side too. Apparently, the chest chambers stay separate. So even though she has a chest tube in on the left hand side, you cannot expect that the fluid on her right side will drain. Therefore, he is planning on another minor surgery tomorrow, to insert a chest tube on her right hand side.
 
Visiting with her tonight, she was engaging – – looking around and grabbing our hands. Her left side is a bit less swollen, as she could finally open both of her eyes. That was good to see!
 
Please pray that her chest tube procedure tomorrow will go well. And that she will wake up at some point to meet her Grandma!
 
P.S. Baby Jordan did well with her feeding today – – she nursed from Mom! A very exciting day for the Brantley’s! Thanks for your prayers for Baby Jordan.

Ella had another good night – – she remained stable.

Her chest tube is working but she is actually losing fluid too quickly. So, they are trying to balance the fluid loss with an increased saline drip. They want to see a nice and steady reduction in fluid over the next several days.

Ella will have her first outside visitor starting tomorrow. Grandma Eusey is coming to visit!

P.S. Baby Evan is doing well – – thanks for asking! We don’t see his parents too often since he is in the NICU II, but we did see his Mom yesterday. Evan’s liver is working better; his biliruben count is lowering steadily. But the best news is that he gets to go home tomorrow! Thanks for the prayers!

Ella’s other friend, Jordan, was born 8/1/07, and moved down to the NICU II the other day. She is progressing really well and is just starting to try feeding. Pray for her too!