Slow and steady wins a trip home

They have found a wonderful sedative that Livi responds great to. I don't know the whole name (hospital slang) but they call it "dex". It keeps the pain to a real minimum and she is mostly sleeping. Every few hours she rouses for a few minutes. We see some eyes, head turning to see who is there, some arms trying to stretch and wriggling and then goes back to sleep without any more meds. This is wonderful because it allows them to decrease the amount of other meds she is getting and some settings on the vent. She is having a great day--very uneventful. She also has not had tylenol for over six hours and has not had a fever. We will keep our fingers crossed. Her urine output is much better today which means the fluid in her lungs is decreasing and her swelling is really going down, though I didn't think she had too much to begin with.

We'll be several more days in the ICU, but if she continues on this steady pace it will be an easy to swallow few days. Our nurses and doctors are WONDERFUL! We get one (and today two because of orientation) nurses all to ourselves. I usually have a lot of stress trying to look after her in the hospital, but no need right now. They more than have it covered. Our clinic docs have stopped by to say hello, which is nice. Our nurse from Wednesday still pops by to say hi and actually remembers my name. In the hospital we are always affectionately referred to as "mom" and "dad", but this nurse not only asked our names (a first) on Wednesday, but remembers them! Its a small thing, but a nice thing.

Thanks so much for the prayers. We would not be in the same place without them for sure. We still need more as Olivia, though she is doing well, has a long way to go. But, slow and steady...