Ella had a touchy afternoon with Nurse Angie. Even though they gave her a large dose of fentanyl at 3:30pm when they turned her on her back, she still fussed quite a bit for the remainder of the afternoon.
She started to calm down around 6pm and fell asleep. When we arrived around 9:30pm, she was still on her back and wide awake. She seemed comfortable and calm, just looking around.
Although her airway required suctioning a few times during our visit, she seemed to tolerate it fine and recovered quickly. Her vent is at 50% oxygen and 70 breaths per minute. Her saturations were 97-98% tonight. She had a blood gas at 10pm which was good, pH level=7.44, cO2=47, pO2=83.
Her chest fluid output was only 41 total for the day during our visit, so it has definitely slowed down. Although most of the fluid is still coming from the right chest tube (which is on the same side as her good lung), so I am sure that is helping Ella.
Her belly looked more distended tonight. Nurse Michelle measured her and she is up 1 centimeter today around her abdomen area. It is easy to tell because her repair scar is bright red and looks more stretched.
Also, her adema has gotten worse in her head and her trunk area too over the past couple of days. In the prior weeks, this was related to her SVC being collapsed. Although they took the contrast x-ray on Monday, we have not received any results.
Dr. Kays opted to remove the brain oximeter today. They were having some mechanical problems with it not reading properly. So, Nurse Michelle removed it again tonight. I am glad because Ella’s skin is so sensitive from the first time around where it was on for weeks, that Ella’s skin has already degenerated again (red and sore).
Finally, you may have noticed that her left eye has some blood capillaries that have burst. The theory is that the adema has caused the skin around her left eye to become red/purple. We are being told that it is not too much of a concern, but that they will watch it closely.
We have this gut feeling that Ella might be retaining fluid again in other pockets of her chest cavity. We will be interested to see how she does throughout the night on her belly, what her chest x-ray shows tomorrow and what next steps that Dr. Kays wants to take with her.
If she begins to not have as good of stats and begins to get fussy for Nurse Michelle, then she likely has more fluid accumulating somewhere. We know that scarring her chest is still a possibility that Dr. Kays is considering. Again, we would like to avoid that procedure but trust that God is in control and orchestrating every detail.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
