Post-Op Days 2 and 3

Day 2

Sleeping after being extubated the night before.

Chest tube drain. The whitish fluid is the chylous (lymphatic fluid).
Last day in CICU.

Sweet angel.

Day 3
Playing early in the morning with her links.

Little Miss Dramatic. :)

but she can be as dramatic as she wants!

It is Sunday, Day 4 post-op. Just spoke with Dr. Kirshbom and he said that we are going to monitor her feeds more today. I think cardiac-wise, everything is on track. There was actually a rumor yesterday that we could be going home today. I did not gather that from Dr. K. I think the reasons are mainly because she is still doing NG feeds. I will back up a little.

Two nights ago, Emma Kate was not taking her bottle very much, so the nurse ended up putting an NG tube down, which I was not very happy with, but understood why it had to be done. We transferred over to Step-Down and Emma Kate was taking her bottles like a champ. Doing awesome. Her chest tubes were taken out yesterday and they gave her a dose of Versed and Morphine. These made her so sleepy, so of course, she wasn't interested in the bottle much after that. Also, she hadn't had a BM (I hate that term) since before her surgery. So I'm guessing she was slightly backed up. Anyway, last night during one of her NG feeds while she was sleeping, she started to gag and ended up throwing up a good bit; it had a lot of (I know this is gross) curdled milk which was obviously not going through her system.. She looked so pitiful, but kind of relieved at the same time. Our nurse, Brittani, thought maybe if she had a little help pooping, she would be able to get stuff pushed out of her system. And maybe the reason why she wasn't wanting to take a bottle is because she had a full stomach and a full bowel. She ordered a suppository and boy did it work! So, we have more hope today that she will take a bottle. Dr. K wants to take out her NG tube if she does well with bottle feeds. So, now that her system is cleared out and she's not taking any more narcotics to slow down her gut, maybe she will take a bottle. Once we get feeding issues cleared up, I feel that we will be able to go home. Please pray for Emma Kate specifically for that today!

Yesterday Emma Kate had her post-op echo (ultrasound of the heart) and we got back a great report. I realized again yesterday how much of a miracle it is that we even have our little girl here. The echo tech told us that the size of her aorta is comparable to a macaroni noodle! If that doesn't blow you away, then this should: the size of her aorta when she had her first surgery was like a piece of angel-hair pasta! How in the world would anyone be able to stitch up little tiny aortas and still enable the child to survive?! It just amazes me. Obviously, we have a lot of respect for Dr. Kirshbom, but we give all the glory to God and we are so very thankful that it is even possible for her to be here.