The first few days post op were absolutely gut wrenching and just plain miserable watching her struggle. There were so many tubes and wires coming out of our little angel that at times it was too hard to handle- I'll be the first to admit it. But, by the grace of God, Audrey shed her arterial line, a central line, two or three IVs, a blood oxygen sensor, and the ventilator within days of her operation.
She was only intubated for about 24 hours thankfully, and was given an oxygen cannula and a feeding tube in her nose after it was removed. Her oxygen flow from her cannula decreased over several days until she was able to feed by mouth (instead of feeding tube)! She was so happy to receive breast milk once again and sucks it down quickly at each feeding. Her volumes will increase over time back to where she was pre-surgery, and finally she is on an 'ad-lib' diet, meaning that she can now eat however much she wants whenever she wants- like she'll be on at home!
One of the side effects of surgery was pretty noticeable swelling, especially in the face. She's getting rid of the excess fluid now and almost looks like she did before, thank goodness. She had some congestion in the upper lobe of her right lung, so she received breathing treatments every 4 hours up until yesterday so that the crud would loosen up and get out of there.
What else can I mention? Well, Audrey now has her eyes wide open when she's awake and closely follows whoever is in her line of sight- mostly mom & dad, but she keeps an eye on her nurses as well :) It is so fun to see her personality show through her beautiful bright eyes!
*Update*- I wrote the above last night actually, but want to share some very exciting news that we received just this morning! Audrey is coming home on Friday!! We were not expecting this yet!! Her cardiologist has given her the green light and her neonatologist is pleased with her feedings and blood oxygen saturation levels, so there's not much use in keeping her in the hospital! She has progressed quite quickly for a cardiac baby luckily, and we were so fortunate to not have feeding problems. That was a big concern of mine, but because she was breast and bottle feeding prior to her surgery, we had a much easier time getting her to feed by mouth once again. Her incision also looks remarkably good, although it still scares us a bit to handle her at times. We are getting good help with her physical therapy though, which will continue once she's home, so we are making progress there as well.
Next steps: She will come home with some meds and a pulse oximeter machine so that we can measure her oxygen saturation levels twice daily, but that's about it! We will stay over night in the NICU with her for one night in what they call 'rooming in' so that we can have a practice run of taking her home. We will be in a bedroom setting and the nurse will only check in maybe a couple of times to make sure we're doing ok. This is what we've been patiently waiting for and we are just thrilled that we finally get to have our baby girl with us at home!! God is good and we know he has heard everyone's prayers for our little girl!
I'm sure we'll have updates soon, but right now we are going to make a final effort to get everything ready for her long awaited homecoming!
Much love to all,
Christie & Charlie
Here are some pictures during her recovery. We'll skip over the first few days post-op since she wasn't looking her best.
So many wires, tubes, and machines! But this is nothing compared to her setup in the PICU following surgery!
Giggles
Aggie game day!
Audrey with her turtle breathing treatment buddy :)
First time wearing jammies!
Pre-dinner nap earlier this evening. No more tubes!
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