Saturday, February 25, 2012

THE BEST MADE PLANS

We've had a few surprises in the last 24 hours.  Charlotte is still not digesting her feedings properly, despite having changed back to formula.  Her thoracic duct is 'leaking.'  She has been started on medication to see if it can correct the problem but if not, it requires a surgical fix to ligate the duct, which will stop it from leaking into the lymph system.  Along with medication, she's receiving IV nutrition instead of formula feedings for the next 3-5 days again to see if it the problem dries up, literally.  

Additionally, her chest drain was removed unexpectedly this morning since the site was looking mucky.  Because of this, Charlotte wasn't able to be extubated as previously planned.  She had an xray this afternoon to see if any fluid had collected in her chest because obviously it wouldn't be the best environment to then extubate.  If there's still too much, the fix is again a surgical one.  She would have a smaller, soft drain called a pig tail drain put in the side of her chest area.  Of course, she would need to be sedated which means that it would delay extubation given she would need ventilator support during surgery.  ARG.

What does all of this mean?  Potentially she could be extubated tomorrow provided her chest isn't draining too much today.  PRAISE JESUS.  If early next week, her feeding issue has not been remedied with medication, then she will require surgery and be RE-INTUBATED.  DOUBLE ARG.  These "issues" as I lovingly refer to them, are causing this Mama Bear major grief.  My Sweet Muffin has come so far and as "minor" as these are in comparison to what she's already overcome, they are still major to us.  Despite having being given the gift of perspective thanks to Char's hard road, it's still hard to swallow - no pun intended.  

Short of these issues, she is rocking and rolling at RECOVERING.  She is such a SUPERSTAR and I pray that rest of the way HOME is on a flat road.

"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead..."

Philippians 3:13


1 comment:

  1. Hoping Charlotte is doing well and continuing her amazing recovery. Sending all our love. Xoxoxo.

    ReplyDelete