a little bunny

We have a couple of days to catch up:

Thursday:
  The rigid bronchoscopy was done and it did the trick to open up the lung.  In the process her left chest tube was knocked out of place.  Lucy had one tube on each side draining extra fluid around the lungs.  The doctor decided to remove it as it was leaking onto her gauze causing her chest dressing to be changed frequently.  They thought maybe with just one drain tube she would be okay.

Friday:
The x-ray was showing a considerable amount of fluid around her left lung.  The cardiologist called me in the morning (pause for a slight freak-out) to let me know they wanted reinsert the chest tube. Without putting the tube back it, we risked the lung collapsing again.  This would be a bedside procedure.  During the placement of the chest tube they also wanted to put in a PIC line.  They need the PIC line in order to remove the thoracic line.  The problem is Lucy is so small that they need to place the PIC line surgically.  This is where they cut a small incision in her arm, locate the vein and then place the IV.  Her veins are too small to do this through the skin.  They decided doing this all at once was best.  The procedure took about an hour and a half.  We found out the nurse had to give Lucy quite a few extra doses of pain and sedation (on top of her IV drips) along with a medicine that paralyzed her.  What that told us was that the two days before when they started weening her, they did it too quickly.  They would re-evaluate her dosing at the next rounds, but Lucy did really good during both procedures.  The cardiologist said they were planning to remove the breathing tube on Saturday.

Saturday:
  We arrived to find Lucy still intubated.  After speaking to the nurse, we found out that overnight Lucy was really irritable.  This was partly due to her medication and partly due to a hectic Friday.  I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but for Lucy it was quite a bit to handle.  The cardiologist decided to postpone removing her breathing tube and give her some time to rest.  They also increased her pain and sedation.  For the first part of our visit she was awake, alert and calm.  Then she took a half hour nap and woke up irritable.  We were able to get her back to sleep with some rocking and some head rubs (we can't yet pick her up because of the drain tubes).

Sunday:
  Happy Easter!  Although we would have loved to have a baby in our basket from the Easter Bunny, we did get some precious awake time with this bunny!

They decided to postpone removal of the breathing to until at least Monday.  They did start Lucy back on feedings.  They tried breast milk, but chyle was still present, so formula it is.  They are doing continuous feeding at twelve milliliters an hour.  Once the breathing tube is removed she will go back to her feedings every three hours.

We also got this awesome plaque from our friends in Wisconsin.  We brought it to Lucy's room as an Easter present.  Thanks Denise, Nan and Pete.  We love that it describes Lucy to a tee.