Today was a very good day. I was pretty depressed yesterday afternoon. I felt down because the doctors felt that Sophia wasn’t ready to have her ventilator tube taken out. It felt like I couldn’t really do anything for her. I went back to the Easter Seal house in the afternoon and slept in the afternoon out of depression while James stayed with Sophia.
But today is a different story. When I got to the hospital early in the morning Sophia was so unsettled. Her tummy was so full of gas that the nurses could not do up her diaper… it was that extended. They even took an xray to make sure that it was just gas. And it was! So they gave her a suppository and she had the hugest poop ever! So I was relieved for her because I remember after my C-section how painful that gas buildup post op was. After that the doctors came around to do their rounds and they decided that Sophia was ready to have some tubes pulled out! YEAH! They took out the external pacemakers which were placed just in case her heart needed it in an emergency, they took out the main chest tube which was placed there to drain the excess blood from her chest and they took out the ventilator tube. So right away I felt happy. She still needed some help with oxygen but very little.
Then a few hours later the nurse let me breastfeed. Can you believe how crazy fast that is? But I was so tense holding her it was nice but not totally enjoyable. Because she still has an IV in her neck, in her groin, in her foot, the oxygen tubes in her nose, the NG feeding tube as well as the 4 electrodes on her chest. Not to mention her surgery wound which must still be so tender. She latched on great but was not settling at all. In fact she was getting more agitated while nursing so we put her back into bed. She only settled herself after a dose of codeine and Tylenol. So she must have been in some type of discomfort. Tonight we tried nursing once again and this time both Sophia and I did great. She nursed on both breasts for such a long time without getting tired or sweaty. Something she hasn’t done before. So I am feeling so much better and feel that we have turned the bend on her recovery.
We are hoping that we will be leaving the ICU area tomorrow to go to a normal ward. Which would be the next step to her recovery and us going home.
We miss Alex and Rachel so much. It feels like we haven’t seen them in weeks even though it has been only 4 days. We can’t wait to see them, hold them and kiss them. Hopefully we will be back at home to be a family of 5 soon.
2 comments:
Your stories about the families that you met while in the ICU broke my heart. It's crazy to think of how many children are seriously sick.
Now that it's all over and done with, Sophia can actually be considered lucky that she gets to go home and live a normal, happy, and healthy life.
I can't believe how quickly Sophia is recovering. She is an amazing little girl. I'm really, really happy for you guys that this is behind you now, and, yes, you can go on being a family of 5 :)
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