Harper is doing very well - so well, in fact, that she decided to take her chest tube out last night!
Karen and I were saying goodbye to her around 9/930pm last night... I leaned down to give her a kiss and I heard a hissing sound coming from her bedside. I put my ear down next to her chest tube and heard it more prominently. There was an air leak! We notified the nurses - they notified the doctor - X-ray confirmed that the tube had moved so far out of her chest that one of the small drainage holes was outside of her body! So, they removed the tube and thought they were going to replace it immediately, but decided to wait until she really needed it, since the x-ray also showed that there was no fluid in her to be pulled at the time.
Without any chest tubes, Karen got to hold her for over an hour, which was much more pleasant not having to worry about it tugging or slipping.
I came back in early this morning and she still had it out, which means the doctors did not see enough fluid build up to constitute putting it back in. We are pretty sure that she will need a new one before tomorrow morning, but the time off is a nice rest for her and for us, as well. I got to hold her this morning for a couple of hours and she was very comfortable and content.
The plan:
Keep waiting. The meds do not seem to be doing too much in terms of reducing the fluid (once again, the meds are meant to reduce fluid in hopes that the leak will heal with less fluid rushing out of the site), but they may be reducing a little so she is going to stay on them for a little longer. We are planning to wait at least two more weeks until anything else is done. Most (80+%) of these cases resolve themselves without any further intervention, and usually around 6-8 weeks. Since we are only at week 5, we are still very hopeful that we will not need to do anything else.
If we do need to do something else in a couple of weeks, there are very good options on the table other than surgery... so we are still very optimistic that she will not need to have a surgery.
She keeps smiling... so we do, too! :) =W=
Wesley & Karen, Bev has been keeping me updated along with your great posts!!!
ReplyDeleteThis may be little consolation but, I feel for you both!! When our Hunter had to be born @ 25 wks he was given a 50/50 chance .... He spent 8 months in the NICU with everything going wrong... From feeding issues, and being on TPN for months, to having to having a Nissen Fundoplycation ( stomach pulled up over his esophagus ) so he wouldn't aspirate into his severely underdeveloped lungs... to many fights w/ pneumonia, infections, two tracheotomy's ... surgery on his eyes.. one thing after another.... I am telling you this, because after all he has went thru... He is a Fighter!! and, Harper is too!! You struggle with having to leave for work, etc... i know what that is like.... I just wanted you both to know, that WE have been there, and you are all in our Prayers! God is Great and he will give you the Strength when you don't have it...( that is the only way i can explain how we got thru all that we went thru, before finally taking a baby boy home @ 10 months old!! Love and Prayers!!!