Thursday evening

It has been quite a big day for Emma Kate- she had a bit of a restless night, and has been requiring her PRN morphine every two hours, and it tends to last her a little less than two hours... assessing her pain has been a bit challenging. Unfortunately, she threw up her feeding tube early this morning, so this one lasted under 12 hours... she's hooked back up to her TPN again so at least she is getting nutrition somehow... hopefully she will be more comfortable eating and swallowing in the coming weeks, and the vomiting mucous will subside quickly... Today she got all her remaining IV catheters removed, as well as the chest drain- that thing was humongous and way in there, so hopefully having it out will improve her comfort greatly! She also had a dressing change over the incision site and it looked great. She's been talking a little bit to us, and although her voice is hoarse and high-pitched, it's wonderful to hear! She's been assessed by the speech pathologist, who is thrilled that she is talking, and was happy to see her swallow two of the tiniest tastes of applesauce this afternoon. PT/OT visited her as well and got her smiling several times by making her stuffed animals do "GYMNASTICS!" on her legs and bed. It was really cute. We tried watching "The Lion King" but it didn't captivate her for long, and we were back to Dora and Aristocats... :) She'll be moved back to the complex airway unit tomorrow, and has been released from bedrest, although I don't think we're going to push much in the near future- she went through a lot today, and hopefully will have a decent night's sleep!