Thursday, September 13, 2007

Getting better

Phoebe is doing well. Wednesday was a good day, with a couple little blips. She still has all of the tubes we talked about before. For most of the day, she was very sleepy. She would wake up every few minutes and cry a little, then fall back asleep. So we thought she was in pain. We called the anesthesiologist, and he came up to see Phoebe. He said he thought she was not in great pain because he already knew the epidural was working (it was used during the surgery) and because she was consolable. But, he wrote orders for morphine and another pain reliever that is similar to ibuprophen, in case she became inconsolable later in the day. She started to wake up for longer periods around 2 in the afternoon. The nurse said it was because the anesthesia was wearing off, which happens about 24 hours after it is given. But, we thought she was waking up and crying because of pain, because she started to cry inconsolably. So the nurse gave her morphine, and she instantly stopped crying. Phew! We were glad we trusted our gut; she just doesn't cry unless there's something wrong! Phoebe has a catheter for urine, and later in the day, we noticed the flow of urine stopped. So the nurse called the docs and they upped her IV fluids. But still no urine. So eventually, the surgical resident examined her and tried flushing the tube. There was a blockage in the tube; after it was cleared, she was peeing constantly! By the later evening, Phoebe was awake for a 10 minute block of time- the longest all day. It reminded me of when she was a newborn- as soon as she opened her eyes, we would try to be right there so she saw us & knew we were there, and then she would fall right back to sleep. But we got to play with her a little, and at the end of the day, we got her to laugh. Yes! That was just the best. Mommy turned 27 today, and that was the best present EVER. Phoebe's incision looks great, and we're looking forward to seeing some of the tubes start to disappear.

3 comments:

Judy W said...

Happy Birthday Kate!
Glad to see all the prayers and having her name on prayer lines is working....
Hope you and Matt get some rest over the next few days.
Judy W

Auntie E said...

Hello Phoebe, Cate and Matt! I am so happy Phoebe is doing well!! You are all so amazing.

Happy Birthday (a little late!) Cate!!!

Love you all,
Elizabeth

Ericka said...

Oh good! I was wondering how you guys were doing. (I called on the 12th.) Then I remembered the blog was the obvious way for you to let us all know at once. Happy belated birthday!