Monday evening

Emma Kate got scoped in the OR again this afternoon, and we got some positive news- they pulled out the ET that was acting as a stent, and for a while after that, her trachea stayed nice and open before starting to collapse again. They cleaned out some secretions and a little bit of granulation tissue, but didn't have a whole lot to do. She recovered well- within a couple hours her BP and HR were back to normal, and she's doing awesome with her ventilator. She was acidotic after the work was done, and she returned to a normal pH pretty quickly with minimal intervention. Her numbers all look great right now. They replaced her tube with a normal cuffed ET in a normal position, so now we can shift her position and avoid pressure sores... I feel so much better about that! She's doing well even in a side-lying position right now. We got some splints made for her feet since she's going to be paralyzed for now, in order to help prevent foot drop. For now, the plan is to maintain her where she is for at least several days, and to have her scoped at least daily to monitor what's happening inside and to treat locally with steroids. She's also getting started on IV steroids and inhaled steroids to help reduce inflammation from the tube being in there irritating things, as well as to help reduce granulation tissue buildup. As long as there is progress we'll keep going, but if things start looking like it isn't going anywhere, it sounds like we might have to consider reoperation. We're hoping things will continue going well for our little butterbean!!! She's looking so good with reduced edema- her arms and legs look great, and her abdominal drain hasn't had any significant production all throughout the day, which is encouraging!