Samantha Mae Barnes: Out of ICU

Today has been yet another day of improvement! Yesterday after my post, they were getting a little worried about her lack of urine production. They had her on three diuretics and added a fourth. Her poor little face really showed the extra fluid in her system-swollen eyelids and cheeks. Thankfully late evening she pretty much saturated her diaper and did that a couple more times through the night. I should hope so on 4 different diuretics! She did start having some painful gas last night and wasn't eating much. She had some good blow outs and this morning seemed better. We also got her on good ol' Mylecon. Her last dose of narcotic pain meds was first thing this morning and since then she's been comfortable on just Tylenol-amazing! Her bloodwork continues to look good, and she is down to only 0.25 L/hr of oxygen-which is not much. They pulled her central line this morning and put in a smaller hand IV catheter. The surgeon came in and said he wanted to keep her on a couple of the diuretics a bit longer since she still has some fluid in her chest. But other than that, he's happy with how she is doing. The dressing over her incision got to come off and things look good under there.

So before noon, she was doing well enough to leave ICU, but we had to wait for a room to open up. It was 4 before we moved rooms, but that is ok. It's a little funny because even though we are officially upgraded from ICU into a less intensive class, we are still in the ICU area. They actually shut down the cardiology pediatric care unit during the holiday since there were no patients up there. So we didn't move too far-just down the hall to a private room which is nice. Or as private as a room with a glass door can be :) At least we have a DVD player in this room so we can watch movies other than all the kids ones available in their system!

Overall we are so blessed by both Sam's progress and her care. The nurses and doctors are so wonderful. It also was a great day because I got to cuddle her without all the annoying tubes that were attached to her central line. She got to take a nap on my chest and the world was good again! As of now they are saying we may be discharged as early as Sunday, but may be Monday am. They just want to make sure her chest fluid is getting better. Its still not known if she will need the oxygen to go home on, but for now she's tolerating the weaning down process very well. I'm optimistic that she will be oxygen free! As you can see by the one picture, she has already figured out how to rub it out of her nose...little stinker! I hope you guys enjoy the pics to follow!