The nurses took out the feeding tube that went down her nose (nasogastric, or NG tube) and unhooked her from the vacuum drainage system for her chest. She still has three tubes (called Blakes) coming out of her chest, but they are attached to individual compressed bulbs that continue the suction on a lesser level.
There were issues with drawing blood again; seems to be the theme for this round of surgeries. Several “professional blood-letters” were called in and we even used a sonogram to locate a good vein. After a needle poke and a lot of fishing for the vein, I called it off. Drastic options were considered (anesthesia team, mid-line, PICC line), but we finally settled on calling in the transport team—the Red Cross meets the Navy Seals of Children’s Mercy. They managed to salvage an IV already in place and within three minutes we had the blood samples needed. Olivia didn’t feel a thing.
The samples came back with the same results I’ve heard several times: her values are on the low side of good, but not decreasing in any way. Awesome. We’ll take it.
I met the night nurse and we discussed the schedule. She’s all about keeping Olivia comfortable and minimizing the interruptions so she can sleep more than she has to endure interruptions. That’s a good nurse, people: do what is necessary, but do only what is necessarily beneficial.
A few friends dropped by the room with gifts and hugs for the three-year-old super trooper. Bubbles, stickers, and balloons are today’s winners, but Amy was the MVP. The mother’s presence, her songs, and reading to her recovering daughter have no equal. I think that’s in Proverbs. Probably chapter 31.
Olivia is sleeping well now and will only be interrupted once before the sun comes up. It’s a far cry from what the norm has been for the last week.
Here’s two pictures: one right after the first surgery this week and the other this afternoon as she hid from the falling bubbles.
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