Evie Post-Op Update #1

It's Sharon blogging... today David, Clare and I visited Evie. It has been two days since her surgery and Evie is still in the intensive care unit. All things considered, she is doing really well! Every nurse and doctor tells me the same thing: "She is REALLY strong!" They are surprised at her strength, but Francis and I are not. Since the day she was born, she has been feisty. She fights everything she doesn't like (naps, diaper changes, tubes coming out of her little body, etc.).

The first night she was in the PICU (pediatric ICU) her nurse had to place soft wrist restraints on her, because she was always trying to pull out her breathing tube. She started out with 7 tubes: 3 IV lines, a catheter for her bladder, a nasogastric (NG) tube in her nose, a chest tube at her incision, and her breathing tube. Last night the breathing tube and NG tube were removed.

She was taking breaths on her own, but she had a hard time when the tube actually came out. Her airways were slightly swollen ( a common occurrence with breathing tubes) and she was working hard to breathe. The nurses gave her a dose of albuterol via a nebulizer (picture and video below) to reduce the inflammation. They also gave her more sedatives to keep her calm. The key is keeping her sleepy and not stimulated and excited. When she gets too excited she starts working too hard to breathe and they just have to calm her down again.

She also had a bit of fluid in her lungs, so she was given a diuretic (Lasiks) which started working right away. To further help with this, she was given a "vibration" treatment from the respiratory therapist. The nurse used an electric toothbrush (really) and held it gently against Evie's chest and back for several minutes. This helped loosen up the secretions in her lungs, which they then suctioned out. Of course, Evie hated this and tried to holler, but her voice is still pretty weak.

Her oxygen saturation levels have been pretty steady in the 80's (except when she gets upset). We are not sure when she will be moved out of the PICU and into the regular pediatric section. I think the doctors would like to see her breathing easier, and be able to take a bottle. She is currently receiving nutrients through an IV.

Below is a picture of the nebulizer treatment. They didn't use the purple dinosaur mask (Evie hated that anyway). Instead, they just held this blue tube close to her face. (The large white cuff on her left leg is measuring her blood pressure, and the large black pad on her left wrist is the wrist restraint.)

She is still receiving oxygen through a cannula (the small tube by her nose). Last night they had her on 100% oxygen, today they were able to reduce it to 35%.

Uncle David is here to hold her hand during the nebulizer treatment.

Aunt Clare brought Evie a Curious George monkey in a doctor outfit (fresh off the plane from Las Vegas!).

I wore pink since it's Evie favorite color. On one of her previous hospital stays, the nurse offered her a choice of 2 sleepers and she batted at the pink one!

Here is a short video of the nebulizer treatment. You can see the mist coming out of the tube. Watch her little abdomen, she's breathing very quickly.