Post-Op Day 4

Doesn't Drew look so peaceful in this picture?

What an exciting day we had! Drew was allowed to have one ice chip at a time five hours after he was extubated at 4:30. Then he got to have tiny sips of water starting at 7:30. It was hard having to take his cup away when he was so thirsty, but they have to start slowly to make sure his stomach can handle it. He hardly slept at all today, but he is sleeping now and has been for about a half hour now. I hope he sleeps for a few hours at least. Right now he is on six liters of oxygen, down from 10. His oxygen sats are 97, heart rate is 128, blood pressure is 96/62.

We moved into another little pod on the CVICU today. There are still four beds in this room and we are with all babies. So far they are behaving. There is a 2:1 patient to nurse ratio here, which means Drew is not as critical. He was wanting to sit up and move around a lot. He kept asking to get out of bed and have us hold him. We can't until he gets his RA line out, since it goes directly into his heart. It sounds like they will pull it sometime tomorrow, as well as a chest tube or two. That should help him to be much more comfortable. They are also going to allow other clear fluids if he wakes up tonight and are ordering him a breakfast tray for the morning in the hopes that he'll be ready to eat. I think tomorrow he will be feeling so much better!

This is the silver dressing covering his incision. Drew's got bling.

He looks scared in this picture, but it's because we had to hold his hands away from his incision. It is supposed to remain sterile. But you can see how nice it looks.

My sweet friends Rose & Deanna drove up to visit today and were lucky enough to be here on extubation day. Which means, I hardly spent any time with them, because Drew kept me on my toes. Speaking of toes, they did force me to have a pedicure and manicure provided by them. I tried to object, but Dee said she'd just sit by my feet until I let her do it. Aren't they the sweetest?
OK, good night everyone. Dan and I are taking shifts at Drew's bedside while the other one tries to sleep in the communal parent sleep room. I don't have my earplugs, so it should be an interesting night.