If you did not have a chance to read last night’s post, you may want to read it, so all of this makes more sense.

Ella has taken small steps in the right direction last night and today.

We know that her body has to be feeling some relief from the fluid reduction in her chest. Her chest fluid output for 8pm – 7am (11 hour period) was 159. If you remember, she had plateaued over the weekend to about 100 -125 total for a 24 hour period. So, the replacement of both chest tubes is certainly making a difference.

Interestingly enough, there was a total of 119 from the right chest tube over that 11 hour period (and 40 from the left chest tube). That confirms that Dr. Kays was correct: there was likely a protein build up in the right chest tube which is why it stopped draining. Thankfully, Dr. Kays made the decision to replace both chest tubes last night rather than put Ella through 2 separate procedures.

Right now, they are replacing her fluid output with saline at 1/3 of the rate to avoid dehydration.

Last night, her blood gas was cO2=66, pO2=146. Her most recent blood gas at noon showed cO2=64, pO2=119. These are in the acceptable range considering her condition.

The chest x-ray this morning showed only a slight improvement on her right side, but not her left side.

The ventilator was returned to the levels where she started when she was first placed on the ventilator, fiO2 at 50% (oxygen) and 40 assisted breaths per minute.

Our anxiety level is a bit higher because the nurse on today is not one that normally takes care of Ella. Because of that, she placed Ella on her right side today. Ella has a tough time breathing when she is laying on her right side due to it placing pressure on her stronger lung, plus the fluid accumulation on her left side is still present.

When Ella did not calm down after several minutes and poor stats, the nurse gave her meds. The “Fab Four” of nurses can tell that when Ella is “touchy”, turning her on the right side is not a wise decision. And if Ella does not tolerate moving to her right side, it is a better decision to leave her on her back or left side until she becomes a bit stronger again.

So, we are a bit more anxious about her care today since we don’t have one of our favorite nurses taking care of her and she is in a delicate state.

We thank you for your continued prayers for our baby girl.

Psalm 33:22
22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.