Ella is doing better today. She has had a couple of “episodes” and is on the sensitive side with her stats, but we hope that she can carry through the night.
 
Nurse Andrea turned Ella on her left side today; she tolerated it for about an hour. After that, she switched to her back and Ella seems to be doing better.
 
She does have a bedsore on the back of her head from being on that position so frequently. They have treated it with surface antibiotic ointment and are trying their best to monitor it.
 
Her blood gases at 2pm were slightly better (57 for cO2 and 68 for pO2). We will wait to see on the next blood gas at 10pm.
 
When we checked at 6:30pm, her fluid output levels were around 250 (less than the same time yesterday). Ella has to go all the way until 7am to complete the 24 hour period. But, we are hoping to see even more fluid reduction.
 
We had our friends visit from Atlanta today, Brendan and Lesli. They brought a new monkey named Georgia to add to Ella’s zoo. Also, they couldn’t handle too much Gator spirit (although the Gators won over Kentucky by a landslide today), so they brought a University of Georgia Bulldog to sit in her bed. Watch out Gators!
 
They tried to convince us that she is a Georgia Bulldog at heart, but we let them know that she must have a bit of Gator spirit in her considering she was born in Gainesville! Brendan even promised that if Ella gets better, he will wear a Gator shirt for a day…wow!
 
It was so nice to visit and have the support of friends. They had a long drive both directions from Atlanta, but it meant so much to see them.
 
We hope that Ella’s fluids continue to decrease through the night and that she can maintain her stats. We would like to see her have a calm, restful night!
 
Thanks for everyone’s support and prayers.
 
UPDATE (12:32am EST): Called in to check on Ella. Nurse Jim said that she’s doing real well tonight. She’s been behaving for him since he started his shift (7pm). Her saturations have been pegging 100% and she’s be resting well. We’ll be resting well too =). G’Night all.

Ella had a rough night. She was very touchy and unable to keep her saturation levels.

However, we have good news to share! It does appear that the meds are helping with fluid reduction. To give you an idea, this was her fluid output the past few days:

8/27 – 759 (SVC procedure completed)
8/28 – 892
8/29 – 678
8/30 – 724

Her fluids for 8/31 was 440 – – that is nearly half! Praise God that this medicine seems to be working. So, the staff has cut back significantly on the amount of fluids they have to replace, in order to keep her hydrated.

However, Ella does not seem to be having a good morning – – she is not able to maintain her stats. So, they have increased the oxygen on the ventilator to 75 (she was at 50 previously), just to give her lungs a break while we still focus on the fluid reduction.

Our friends, Brendan and Lesli, are here to visit from Atlanta. We are going to visit Ella and will post later!

p.s. Go Gators!