8:45 am – We’re coming home! The hospital just called our apartment and confirmed that Emma is being discharged this morning.

11:30 am – Emma’s eating well. She went from 3.5 kg yesterday to 3.6 kg today (~3.5 oz gain, really good). She still had her oxygen tubes in her nose when we arrived, but the nurse told us she’s been off oxygen since this morning – just a bit of room air flow.

Still no room in the stepdown area. But they moved her to another area in the ICU, and left her O2 tubes off once we got there.

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Everything is going well. Nothing else to report really.

1:00 pm – Emma is still doing good! The nurse told us that she’s ready to be moved out of her ICU room, but there isn’t enough room in the stepdown area, so she’s staying where she is at the moment.

They’ll be keeping her in the hospital until they’re sure she’s gaining weight normally – sounds like it’ll be at least another 4 or 5 days.

9:30 am – The hospital called this morning while we were still at the apartment. They’re removing her chest tubes! She had several tubes put in during the surgery to drain excess fluids from the heart, lungs and stomach, but they have fulfilled their purpose now.

I think as soon as she’s feeding well they’ll be moving her out of ICU – maybe this afternoon or tomorrow (just a guess)? Continue reading →

Miriam went to the hospital this morning while I stayed at the apartment to get some work done.

At 10:30 this morning, Emma’s ventilator tube was removed. She apparently didn’t feel like breathing directly afterwards, so they gave her some medicine, and she’s now doing fine.

Now that she has the tube out, she can make noises, but Miriam says she’s not crying – just making her little noises. They’re giving her some medicine for her sore throat – that tube must not have been very comfortable.

This is the first step to releasing her from ICU down to a normal room. She’ll still need her chest drainage tubes removed and feeding started before that will happen. Even then, she’ll probably be in the hospital for another week or so.

Emma is still doing well and not awake, so Dad and I decide to take advantage of the free golf pass that comes with the apartment, and head out there at 8:00 am. Miriam goes back to the hospital for the morning.

The nurse says that Emma actually started waking up in the night, but the doctor wants her to have lots of rest, so they upped her meds and she went back to sleep. In the morning, her electrolyte level was low and her kidneys weren’t doing as well as they’d like, so they put her on dialysis and added electrolytes via IV. Didn’t last long though, she recovered nicely and was soon back off that machine. Continue reading →

Emma sleeps well, and we give her steroids from the hospital at 2:00 am, and the last bottle at 4:00 am. And now it is time to go! We arrive at the hospital at 6:30 am . . .

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Tuesday’s appointment is a general checkup-to make sure Emma is a good candidate for surgery at this time. After a series of basic tests and questions, she is declared ready to go. Fortunately, in the last couple of weeks she has gained a good amount of weight. She now weighs 7 lbs 14 oz, just over a pound more than her birth weight, at 2.5 months old. Continue reading →

On Monday, we leave the house around 5:00 pm, heading for Little Rock, Arkansas-a 3.5 hour drive. We have to be at the hospital around 8:00 in the morning Tuesday, so we decided to get settled into the hotel the night before.

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