August 23, 2009

A better day.....

Today has been a much better day....Jenna had a very calm night and woke up a few times wanted to hold onto her balloon and then she would almost immediately fall back asleep. In rounds this morning, the attending said that she was very pleased with how well Jenna was doing and said that they could start weaning her on the medicine drip for her stomach, to be off by Monday. She is still on her antibiotic, but it seems as if the blood infection is resolving but she will remain of this for 7 days. She said that all her levels were within limits, except for her Potassium, which they have been giving supplements for. Every time Jenna pees, she does a lot and all of her Potassium goes out of her body, so her level is off from what they would like it to be. Dr. E. was in rounds this am and said that he has not heard from Dr. Inge yet, and he was going to try and call him at home to discuss if he was going to be able to do the diaphragm surgery in the next few days. If he does not, then he said that he will want to do the traditional way (more invasive) early in the week. So hopefully, we will hear by the morning when it will be. Dr. E. also said that he was sad that the events recently occurred and that he feels that we are "rounding the corner" with how well Jenna is doing. He says that his gut tells him that Jenna is moving in the right direction and the "hiccups" she has been experiencing are going to go away soon and she be on her way home hopefully. He is very pleased with how well she is doing.

Today, she rested most of the day. When she did wake up, she moved around to get comfortable but then fell back asleep. They feel that they may have reached her "happy place" with her sedation medicine. This is good, hopefully she will not be completely overloaded this time with medicine. A couple of times when they flushed the tube to her stomach, light pink to brown liquid came back, but they have been watching to see if it becomes bright red in color and if her blood levels change. This would indicate possibly a new bleed, but so far so good-no bleeding. In reference to how often upper GI bleeds happen in cardiac kids-the attending Dr. Dent has only had one other child do this in the 20 or so years she has been in this field. So, of course Jenna wants to be special. :) Also today, her right side of her lungs was a little diminished when they listened to them (not clear-crackle sounds). So, they did a blood gas, which was a little low and a chest xray which showed that her right side had collapsed a little. So they increased her breathing rate on the ventilator and the pressure pushing into her lungs. They said that the lung collapsing will continue to occur until her diaphragm is corrected. She seems to have been very comfortable today, which is great. A nice quiet, calm day-hopefully we will have lots more of these in the future.

So, family (Nonny, Uncle CJ, Sammi, Aunt Stacey and Uncle Mike, Cousin Sophie, Uncle Ben and Cousin Lilly, Meme and Pawpaw and Aunt Missy) went back home today. :( We enjoyed the time we had with them, and it was great that they were here during the hard times after Friday. It means so much to us. We have such a wonderful support system.

Hopefully the rest of tonight will be calm for babygirl. Thanks to everyone for everything, continue to think of us-especially Jenna and pray for her recovery and that we come home soon. We will keep everyone posted on her status.

Love, Jenny, Justin and Jenna

7 comments:

  1. That's what we like to hear, Jenna. We are so happy that you had a nice calm day and got some rest. We will continue to pray for you, mommy, and daddy. Hopefully, it won't be much longer until you can all go home :)

    Your Friends,
    Lori, Justin, and Tristan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Giving thanks for yet another miracle. Our hearts ache for you during those difficult times and we continue to pray for you each and every day. Little Miss Jenna...we pray you will be home soon running and playing. :)
    Love,
    Mike and Linda

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another miracle....Jenna is full of them!!! Everyone is praying so hard for the three of you, God is answering them and watching over all three of you... Just wait until Jenna is home, running and playing and being her usual self!!! Grandpa Cliff

    ReplyDelete
  4. lots of people have asked about jenna today! what a little gigglebug! give her a kiss from us! love, stacey

    ReplyDelete
  5. So glad to hear yesterday was a better day. Love you guys!

    Carissa

    ReplyDelete
  6. We are so glad to hear Jenna had a better day...We hope this is a start of many better days in a row....Our thoughts and prayers are with the three of you!

    Your Friends,
    Brent, Lisa, and Slaton

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome!!! A much better day. Keep 'em up Jenna.

    Karen Webb

    ReplyDelete