Baby Emma update

Baby Emma update- Praise God for His hand upon her...

Well pretty much a slow day for progress here. Last night they moved the PICC and ART lines from her belly button (these were inserted when she still had the umbilical cord) into her arm and leg. For the most part, she tolerated this well although she did seem to be in a little bit of pain afterward.

This morning started with a chest exploration. Today they cleaned out the chest cavity and looked for any clotting that they could help reduce. They also removed her SvO2 line as it was no longer functioning. This line was primarily being used to measure the oxygen saturation in the superior vena cava. She still has two other lines in place that are measuring oxygen saturation in and close to the heart so there wasn't any concern removing it.

During the procedure she did have a few bouts of SVT (Supraventricular tachycardia, yes we had to google it too). This basically means that her heart beat quite a bit faster than it should. The Dr's were able to manage this with medication.

The Dr's would still like to see her produce more urine as she still has quite a bit of fluid built up on her body. She was basically flat on her fluids in and out today. This is a delicate balancing act because if they give her additional diuretics then they can adversely affect the oxygen levels in her blood. So they plan to wake her up a bit more as increased activity should help with the process. They also plan to continue physical therapy massages that have definitely helped.

So at this point we are looking to reduce the fluid in the body with the next milestone goal of being able to close her chest. It is still likely to be early next week before we reach this point.

Short update on Caleb:
He visited Dr Cava (cardiologist) for a routine check up. Everything seems to be going well with him. He has a few more weeks of his low fat diet and reduced activity (yeah right). He was able to come into the hospital today though and see baby sister. Nurse Margret let him start Emma's blood pressure so that was the highlight of his day!