Moving along.

Well they took Ava off the paralyzing medicine last night and she has not been able to be still. I hate watching her like this, as a Mother you want to do all you can to lessen the hurt. They are telling me it is good that she is moving and the more she moves the faster it will get out of her system. It is also good to maintain her muscle strength in her arms and legs.

Okay so we just got out of rounds and here is what is going on, They are going to lower her vent settings because her blood gases are looking good and they think she needs to start working over the vent. She has a small pneumothorax in her left lung which is an accumulation of air in a small section of her lung. They may need to put another chest tube in if it is not decreased by lowering the vent settings and give her lung a chance to heal on its own. Hopefully this will take care of it and she will not have to get another chest tube or any more procedures done. They think she is beginning to get dehydrated because her heart rate is up, so instead of giving her more fluid boluses, they are decreasing her lasix drip. She is still peeing well, maybe too well. There is a new primary dr on for this week and he seems to be gung ho about doing what it takes to make her better. He has some new ideas to try to get things done. Lets hope this can bring about good change for little Ava.

She woke up a little this morning and we got to see her eyes. Oh how I miss her big beautiful eyes. Amanda brought her a Barney and as soon as he started playing the music she opened her eyes. It was precious.

So please everyone start doing some positive lung thinking so that nothing invasive will happen. I am positive to think that Miss Ava loves control and that is exactly what Dr. Kamath is going to give her. Thanks for your emails of support and praise. I cherish every word. Usually at the end of the day I will read them all to Brian and we reflect over the day.

We also spoke with Dr. Shalanski this morning and he said next week he will go in and change the patch on her stomach, to something that can suction a little better. He also thinks this "process" is going to take a lot of time. He thought a month or longer before she would be able to be closed back up completely. I was shocked. They want to get her off the ventilator and then let her be able to sit up and do more normal things.

~Terri (Thanks Amanda for helping write this update. I actually got a massage while she was writing it, then I finished it up! It felt soooo good.)