Making Progress

Zoe had an eventful morning. Dr. Spray's surgical assistant came by and removed Zoe's chest tube, pacing wires and atrial lines. Initially, Zoe was far from pleased, requiring additional Morphine - her drug of choice. Her nurse then removed her renal line (for continual temperature checks) and foley catheter. The team wanted her cath out as soon as possible due to her recent UTI.

She then had a chest xray which showed improvement on the lungs. It also highlighted the excessive air bubbles in Zoe's bowels. Air bubbles = very bad gas. Poor babe, like she doesn't have enough to worry about. To flush her bubbles, we fed her a 3 oz bottle of milk. No problems eating; she took the bottle like a champ. Shortly after eating (and a little Colace), the air bubbles escaped. She did a great job stinking up the entire "pod" (4 infant beds to each pod) with her bowel movement.

Zoe is waking up and coming out of her sedated state. She'll require Morphine every 4 hours for pain control. The nurses hope that by tomorrow her body will become more accustom to the new blood flow and her headaches will decrease.

During rounds this morning, we got some great news...no more Lovenox injections! Yay!

Zoe will remain in the CICU today as we attempt to wean her from oxygen and switch her over to what will eventually be her medication upon discharge. Perhaps by tomorrow we'll be able to head over to the CCU step down unit and be that much closer to going home.

Great morning, let's hope and pray for a great afternoon too!