Post Op Day 2 : 10am

Elaina had a pretty good night. When they took her blood gas at 6am, her CO2 levels were elevated. They checked them again at 7am, and they were still high. At 8am, the nurse came and woke me up in the sleeping room. They decided that Elaina was no longer tolerating the oscillator, so they were going to switch her to the conventional ventilator. They made the switch at 9am. Everything went smoothly. They took another blood gas at 9:30 and her CO2 levels were starting to go down, and her oxygenation was actually higher than it had been most of the day yesterday. The doctors and nurses are hopeful that this is going to be a good change for her today. The nurse said that her lungs still sound very sick, that it sounds like 2 rubber balloons rubbing together. They are going to try some medication to loosen the "gunk" in the lower part of her lungs to see if they can suction it out. When they did her chest x-ray this morning, it still looked like part of her right lung is collapsed, but they are keeping her on the nitric oxdide for now and hope that this will reverse itself. They are also going to start some IV nutrition today. They are going to put her on what's called TPN and lipids. This basically means that her body will be getting calories, vitamins, minerals, and fats so that she can continue to grow and get stronger. She's still pretty swollen, they want to get some of the fluids out of her before they close her chest. They are hoping to do that on Monday.

Ben got to go camping with Uncle Don last night, and had a blast. He played with friends and pigged out on so much junk food that he got himself sick, and they ended up coming home at 2am with a puking boy. Poor kiddo! Hopefully he'll feel better today, Orem is having a carnival today followed by fireworks tonight. He's a real trooper, so I'm sure he'll bounce back just fine.

Well, that's all the news for now. I will try to update again this evening, or if there are any major developments. Thanks again for all the love, prayers, and support. I know that we wouldn't be this strong without it.