Breathing Tube Removed!

Brida had another great day.  She accomplished the following milestones:

• Had her Foley catheter removed
• Had her chest drain removed
• Had one of her IV lines in her hand removed
• Had her umbilical line removed this evening
• And, most importantly, had her breathing tube removed and is now fully breathing on her own.  This is a huge milestone for Brida since this takes 1-2 weeks to happen in most children with HLHS and often takes longer.  Throughout last night they were weaning her off of the ventilator by dropping the ventilator frequency.  They turned it off completely this morning and she was breathing on her own for a while,  but she held her breath a couple of times so they turned it back on.  At noon, they removed the breathing tube completely and she has been breathing well since.  Below is a photo and video of Brida from this afternoon.

As can be seen in the photo, Brida's swelling has also decreased quite a bit.  They haven't needed to pump too many fluids into her so the increase in swelling that we were told would probably happen hasn't.  She is also moving a lot more and just starting to look around.

They still have her on a little extra oxygen to help in controlling her sat. levels.

She is scheduled to be fed from a bottle tonight to see how she does with that.  If she can keep the liquids down, they will remove her (RA/PICC) lines tomorrow, which is the last step before she can be held.

Saturday Summary:

The day didn't start off well for Erin and Sam.  Maggie, again, thought it was a good time to give her parents trouble.  She woke up at midnight (seems like she had a bad dream) and wouldn't fall asleep until 3:30 am.  

We had our lawn mowed this morning by Natalie E (thanks Natalie!).

Before lunch, we discovered that one of our sprinkler valve boxes was erupting with water.  I later diagnosed it to be a cracked valve.  I will try to fix this tomorrow.

Erin and Sam left to visit Brida after lunch. We were debriefed by Lisa, her nurse, on Brida's progress overnight and the great news about the breathing tube.  

Today the CICU was pretty quiet.  Brida's roommate was released to the post-surgical floor, so the staff decided to relocate Brida to a single room closer to some other patients.  She now has a room with a window:

Erin and Sam were then given infant CPR training by Lisa and provided a kit to practice with that includes a video and a practice doll.  They don't provide this to most patients, but since Brida is at a higher risk for needing CPR, it is mandatory training for parents before patients are sent to the post-surgical floor (where Brida will go to next once she is eating on her own and all her lines are removed).  We were also encouraged to give the training to any other future caregivers.

Erin and Sam left the hospital after 5:00 to get home to have dinner with the kids and have a birthday cake celebration for Erin's third-annual 30th birthday.  Happy Birthday Erin!