But he came back to check on Avery this morning and said that pain wise and epidural wise she is doing great.
She had two doctors doing her surgery…Dr Kim (who has cancer so only see him the bare minimum bc he is on chemo so he doesn’t want to be exposed to a lot of germs..) and Dr Lee who we will mainly see bc of the reason I stated above..lol!
But she said so far everything looks good..the main goal for the first 24 hrs is to maintain and control the pain as best as possible. So that is why she will be all groggy for awhile..and we will take each thing that arises on a case by case bases. She said They will give valium as needed for muscle spasms. They are also watching her fever..she has a fever but not high enough yet to do a cultural for like sign of infection or pneumonia it almost got that high last night but then they put ice around her and it must of brought it down a little but they are still administering Tylenol around the clock and she still has a fever..it stays around 99.5 I think they said.they do everything in Celsius so its confusing bc I don’t know that..but that is what they are used to… so we watch it closely..also her breathing…she needed oxygen last night while sleeping bc her oxygen kept dropping..but then when she woke up this morning it was back up…so she started to doze off after eating only a little tiny bit of her eggs this morning..and her oxygen levels kept dropping so back on oxygen she is…so the nurse is thinking when she is sleeping and nodding off to keep her on oxygen bc she isn't used to the weight of the cast yet and then with her sleep apnea too..that is what is causing her levels to go down..but hopefully she gets used to weight of it in a couple of days. Also the spica cast can really restrict there breathing somewhat..
Oh how I hate this machine…u are constantly looking at it..right now it looks good…but earlier we just kept watching it drop and drop and drop..it gets to very low 80’s and sometimes the 70’s. and the one in the middle (who I know Becky is going to inform me on bc she is GREAT:) {Becky and all nurses my hat is off to you..bc you guys have a tough job..and you have to be so friendly all the time bc I am sorry but I DO NOT want to deal with a bad not so friendly nurse right now..that is the last thing I want..:)} anyways like I was saying I don’t know what it is and it keeps dropping low and making a beeping noise too….
The last concern is getting pneumonia. Cant remember if I talked about that yet or not but if I already did..im sorry..remember I havent got much sleep…Right now she sounds a little croupy when she coughs and has a really junky cough…but it might be from her breathing tube that she had during surgery but when you listen to her you can hear it a little bit in her lungs too so we are just watching it closely right now….well I think that is all for now..will update when I know more..but right now she sleeps..
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5 comments:
The middle number is the amount of breaths she's taking. It's obviously lower when she's relaxed and sleeping and higher when awake.
Glad she's doing okay so far- hope she improves quickly!
Get as much rest as possible...I know how difficult that is in the hospital though! Soon she will be home and this will all be a blur! Will keep praying!
So glad to read everything is okay! This isn't related at all to Avery's recovery but I think you and Avery have very similar sleeping faces:) Hope you both are able to rest peacefully!
Yes, that monitor. I know parents have nothing really else to watch but numbers that do not always make sense to them. And, then when it beeps, you never know how concerned you should be as a parent. Yes, as in an earlier comment, that middle number is what is called the "respirations" or breaths per minute. It is the most annoying of them all because depending on the location of the lead placed on the chest and positioning of Avery, it is sometimes can count other movements or not count if her breaths are not deep enough, and will beep a lot. I used to work Pediatric Intensive Care at Duke University before I had kids so email me if you need anything explained. I will do my best to help. I know how overwhelming everything can be for a parent....information overload as you said!
As for the temperature thing, know that 38.5 is when the concern sets in (that is about 101.3 to 101.5). 37.0 is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if she is hanging out in the low 37.0 to 37.5 that is a low grade fever. Post op fevers are not an uncommon thing so do not worry too much yet.
Of course, my continued prayers are with you. I know God is wrapping His strong arms around Avery right now and holding her tight helping her through the pain and healing process. Hugs to you all.
Becky ^^ You're awesome to explain all this stuff. You're making me sniff 'cause I know how awesome it is to KNOW what stuff is, and the nurses that are physically there don't always have the time to explain every move they make. :)
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