Day #4 post-op

8:35 p.m.
Today was a very restless day for Shelby.  I did not deal with it because after my parents left I went to Kohl's House and actually slept for 5 hours!  Scott did, though, along with our nurse, Colleen.  She just couldn't get settled down.  Finally when I got over here the doctors doubled her prn (as needed) doses of Morphine and Versed and upped her constant Morphine drip from 200 micrograms to 260 micrograms.  She is resting peacefully again.  While that is a lot more drugs on board, there is no reason not to use them when she can't even work towards being extubated until she is closed up in the OR.  I am very hopeful that will happen tomorrow as she is fluid-negative right now :-)  As much as I want to interact with her, I don't want her to hurt or remember any of this time being intubated.  Let's get her through being closed up and then the hurdle of getting off the vent can be tackled.  Here's praying for a calm night :-) and hoping I can report in the morning that she's heading to the OR.


10:19 a.m.
During rounds the liver people (Whitington and Superina) kind of laughed that the ICU people started Shelby on antibiotics for such a low fever.  They are not concerned.  Today the plan is to pull off more fluid so she can go back to the OR tomorrow.  No worries about her hemoglobin so no blood transfusions.  It is pretty darn amazing that for having liver disease and a liver transplant she's only had 6 blood transfusions in her entire life (1 after Kasai, 1 after distal splenorenal shunt, 2 during transplant and 2 post-op)!

She had about an hour of restlessness this morning that was finally brought under control - thank goodness!  Mom and Dad are getting ready to head home for a few days.  We'll miss them, but are happy to know they're taking our love back to Riley and Avery.  That's all for now, folks! 

4:51 a.m.
I just realized that the "Day #? post-op" does not accurately portray her post-op days, but more like days since surgery that I've slept and then considered my day to start.  For example, Day #1 post-op started when she was only like 6 hours post-surgery, but I had slept for a few hours and woken up, so, to me, the day had begun :-)  Thus, today is day #4 post-op.  

Her fever didn't last long.  Shortly after all the cultures were drawn her temp returned to normal.  Yay!  I hope nothing comes back on those cultures, though.  As a precaution she was started on Vanco and Zosyn (2 BIG antibiotics) every 6 hours.  She just got another dose of Versed as the one she got not too long ago wasn't quite settling her in, but here's hoping she's quiet for a while.  You'll be sitting there and, all of a sudden, her hands are moving...and now they've been moving towards her breathing tube.  Don't blame the girl at all, but she is nowhere near ready for that thing to come out.  I anticipate with it being Monday morning things will get busy here soon with the weekend being over.  Everybody and their brother will be checking on her.  Don't worry, my trusty Keurig is already pumping me full of caffeine.  Until later...