Sunday July 20, 2008

I wish the 48 hour time period had worked as well on Maggie, but unfortunately we didn’t have pushy nurses or doctors on duty. Maggie wasn’t much better this morning; she was still wheezing and working really hard at breathing. She had racemic epinephrine treatments every 2 hours during the night and until 11am, but it didn’t do much good. Usually the treatment will cause her heart rate to increase (adrenaline), but she got used to it and didn’t do much in her later treatments. So, Nurse BJ pushed to start Maggie on Decadron to get the swelling down. Maggie was also very hungry, much like her sister on day 2, so she got up to 30cc of milk. Then Maggie started having bradycardia spells – drop in her heart rate below 100 bpm. They did not seem to be caused by anything in particular, but those can be scary. So, she got a half loading dose (think ½ of a Coke) of caffeine and then will get some more in 24 hours. These things started to help and Maggie sounded much better this evening, but was pale and still not back in bed with sis. I’m really bummed they didn’t give Maggie the same attention and treatment as Evie, because I think she should have been much improved 48 hours after surgery. Evie started the Decadron the day after surgery, and since Maggie is 1 day behind on that, I think it is going to take her 72 hours to be better.

Evie, on the other hand, is doing great and had 3 full “home cooked meals” without supplementing with fast food today. I’m hoping we’ll add in that 4th feeding tomorrow – even though it will require me to get up and go to the hospital at 2:30 am – ugh, but it’ll be worth it. Evie again crossed the 5 lb mark. She had lost weight after surgery, but is gaining again!