10/30/08 Day 3

Ashlyn continues to do well each day. The biggest accomplishment today was the removal of the breathing tube for the ventilator! She is breathing on her own with he support of a nose cannula which supplies a little extra oxygen to her. Tomorrow, she probably will get to eat for the first time since Sunday night. She is much more alert, looking at me and making some of her normal noises. She is not able to vocalize yet because of the tube being in her throat makes it sore ans scratchy, but this should last only a few days. She had an Echo done yesterday and there are a few things they are going to monitor. It may be because of the stress her heart had. Her pulmonary has narrowed a bit and her arch is small (arch is what the aorta and pulmonary artery make), which we knew before. There is also a residual leak around the patch they put in her VSD (hole in her heart which allowed blood to flow through and mix, basically a heart murmur). None of the issues are critical, they will just monitor them. Her chest tube drainage is way down. Only 10cc all day which is about 1/3 ounce. She also only had two doses of morphine all day, and both were half doses. She is much happier to have her pacifier back, and it calms her with the help of SweetEase (sugar water). Tomorrow she may have some of the IV lines removed and once the ones going in to her artery are removed, we can hold her :) Tomorrow I will be coming home for Halloween with the girls and John will be returning with me that night for the weekend. I plan to stay here until next Wednesday. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, they are working!!!