More Nurses, Less Snow.

It was wonderful to walk into the PICU this morning and find Hope sleeping peacefully.  She continued to have a few moments during the day that required some extra sedation.  She was noticeably more comfortable through and is doing extremely well after an open heart surgery.  Dr. Ross commented again on how well she was doing.  He also continues to comment on how much she needed the surgery and should improve as a result.  I have no regrets for pushing them to take Hope into the OR, regardless of the risks.

Hope was taken off the heart assistance medication this morning.  She appears to have not noticed this change.  They started to wean Hope off the high flow oxygen today as well.  She is tolerating this well and should be on basic oxygen by morning if all goes well.  Praise the Lord for this positive step in Hope's recovery.

There's a chance they'll be moving Hope up to ICE tomorrow if she continues to do well with the oxygen weaning.  Hope is still only on 2 ml an hour of feed.  This gives her a total of 48 ml in a day, and she needs 700 mls a day.  We have a long way to go and she is already showing signs that she's not ready to go up on her feeds.  This could keep us in the hospital for a long time, so please pray for healing in her digestive system.  We are praying that the blood flow to her tummy will improve her entire digestion system.

The PICU was short-staffed today in a huge way, due to several nurses calling in sick.  Hope was sharing one nurse with another high maintenance patient.  This makes me uncomfortable for a lot of reasons.  We are praying that we'll have our own nurse tomorrow morning.  I simply don't want anything to be missed before Hope is sent up to the ICE.

I feel physically tired tonight, although I'm having a fair amount of sleep each night.  I'm hoping my body doesn't get lazy with winter being here.  It's freezing cold and very snowy in Edmonton right now.  It becomes a mental battle to go outside!  Please pray that my spirits stay up in the midst of my least favourite season...winter!  It's probably good that Hope doesn't need to go outside, it's far too cold for her!