Well poor Alexa can't cut a break. She has been doing really good with the weaning of the morphine. They lower the dosage every other day and so far she hasn't had a problem with it. Her chest fluid output has finally come to a halt and hasn't produced any since the 2nd chest tube fell out. Thank goodness!! They are trying to slowly switch her over to a fattier formula then the fat free formula she is on. So far so good. They took an x-ray this morning to make sure the fats aren't being sluffed into her chest cavity. It came back clear. woot woot!! Once they can get her fully on this new formula for a few days with no problems then we can work over to breast milk.
On the other hand ....
Yesterday they did a GI tract x-ray to see how bad her acid reflux is. They put barium in her stomach and then watched her acid reflux. Apparently hers it really bad. I'm not at all surprised by this after watching her constantly gag and be in discomfort from the reflux. This is common with patients that have had open heart surgery and to top it off acid reflux runs in the family. Now the doctors want to do a stomach surgery where they take part of the stomach and wrap it around her esophagus to keep anything from coming up. My Dad has had this surgery done as well. They also want to put a Gtube in her stomach with a port that opens up on the side of her belly. This is like a back up if she is having problems eating, burping, or puking. If we don't use it after a month then they just pull it out and close up the small hole. Having another surgery means more morphine ... sheesh. So hopefully she will be having the surgery this Monday so we can get this over and done with so we can bring her home. The recovery is only a couple of days so we are really hoping to have her home before Christmas. Gosh, that would be nice. We still have to meet with the surgeon sometime today or tomorrow to get all the details.
Last night the nurse had me give Alexa her blood thinning shot. I was so nervous to do it. I'm not afraid of needles or blood. I'm nervous about the feeling of the shot going into the skin. My palms were sweating and my hand were a little shaky but I did it. It really wasn't that bad just sucks having to do it.
So tomorrow Alexa turns 1 month old. At times I can't believe she is already a month and other times it feels like she should be like 2 months old. This last month feels like a crazy nightmarish dream.
3 comments:
I was nervous just seeing the picture of you being nervous! :) Glad things are looking up! Even though she has little steps backward, at least they are resulting in great steps FORward! Praying for you all often, and looking forward to the day we see a pic of you holding her AT HOME! Loves to all..
Alexa is so beautiful! And it seems as though she is in the care of really good physicians and nurses too. Which is a blessing for you all.
Christmas is still 22 days away...crossing fingers and toes that she is well by then! You are a strong Momma and Alexa is blessed to have YOU!
Sheesh! Well if it's any comfort, we did the fund and gtube route and even though there were drawbacks sometimes, we were happy to have it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Good luck to you all.
Post a Comment