Friday July 18, 2008

It was surgery day again; however, most of the day was normal. Both girls nursed this morning and did pretty well. Evie is back on her nasal cannula as of about 6am this morning. I had a feeling that she might be headed there last night as she had a few little spells when we were there. Plus, the Decadron and caffeine were wearing off. Thus, this was not unexpected, especially since she was still on oxygen before her surgery. Evie did however get to have a spontaneous bath this afternoon before she got to eat – Mom did it all by herself with no help! Plus, Evie did it without supplemental oxygen also! And she smells much better (the bath was Nurse prompted due to her smelliness!).

Maggie moved to the procedure room to be intubated and start her medications at 2pm. The procedure started 3:45 pm, and was complete at 5:45 pm. Dr. Murdock performed the procedure this time and Dr. Sippy showed up a little after 5pm to assist. They said that the procedure went well. Maggie needed to have multiple doses of medication as she was starting to move a bit and because the procedure went longer. However, Maggie seems to be handling the ventilator much better than Evie did. Her blood gas levels (CO2, O2, pH) were very good right after intubation and she was using only 21% oxygen. She also did not require suction to clear gunk out of her lungs – that is a good sign as Evie had several suctions within the first couple hours. After 8pm, she was fairly awake and was taking a good portion of the breaths on her own. However, since the Dr. isn’t usually around at night (unless necessary), they probably will not extubate her until tomorrow morning. I’m anxious to get that tube out of her throat as soon as possible so it will cause minimal irritation. I’m hopeful that Maggie’s recovery might be a little less strenuous since her lungs are in better condition.