Day 7

Well, the nurses are giving Harlie a much needed bath (her helmet doesn't smell like roses, let me tell you!) so while she's well attended to, I ran to get some breakfast and to the library.

The surgeons rounded at 6am this morning. For some reason, they didn't do the suction test this time - they want an x-ray and then they will determine if the chest tube can come out. Hopefully the x-ray tech will come around soon. She coughed a lot last night again. I spoke with a pulmonologist (actually two) late yesterday. I learned so much about her wheeziness in her lungs. There are a couple of things that could be causing it. So we are going to start with a different kind of breathing treatment that helps bronchomalasia (floppiness of the bronchial tubes to her lungs). If the wheeziness lessens, then we know that's it and in time she will outgrow it. There are some other things that could be causing it that I really don't like - reflux and microaspirations. The bad thing about these two causes is that we would really need to stop them from happening so we stop the damage they are causing to her lungs. The great thing is that I feel like we can get the help we need by seeing pulm. here instead of in Richmond. Not looking forward to more road trips, but if it is what she needs, then so be it. We have been seeing pulm. since bringing her home and I have never been told any of this. This is very discouraging considering all the time that we've lost. Lungs grow the most during the first two years of life. So, at least we still have some time to make some improvements.

Well, need to run.

OH! Thanks for the tip, Suzanne! When speech comes by today, I'll mention that, too!

Please keep your fingers crossed that they can pull the chest tube out today!!! I'll try to update later on today since my mom and Tom's mom are here to help me with Harlie. (I don't leave her in the room alone).

Take care,
Christy